REUNION 



NINETY-SEVENTH REGIMENT 



Di 
i 



'ENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS, 

OCTOBER 29th, 1884, 

ON THE OLD CAMP GROUND,' 
AT CAMP WAYNE, WEST CHESTER, PA 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS 

WITH 

A ROSTER OP THE COMRADES, PRESENT : 



PREPARED BY '.' 4 ^ ' • : ' \ '^ > , ' ' \ . . 

BREVET-COLONEL ISAIAH PRICE, 

Con^panion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the 

United States. Connrade of George G. Meade, 

Post No. 1, Dept. Penna. G. A. R. 

AUTHOR OF THE 

HISTORY OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH REGIMENT P. V. 



Philadelphia, 1SS4. 






PRESS OF 

Donaldson &. Magrath, 
614 sansom st. 


s 


1 3 





REUNION 

OF THE 

NINETY-SEVENTH REGIMENT PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS. 



PREPARATORY PROCEEDINGS. 

West Chester, Pa., February 2d, 1884. 
The surviving members of the Ninety-seventh Regiment Pennsylvania 
Volunteers are requested to meet at the Green Tree Hotel, West Chester, 
on Saturday, February 23d, 1884, for the purpose of providing for a Re- 
union between the members yet living. All interested are invited to at- 
tend. [Signed] Louis Y. Evans, 

R. Bruce Wallace. 



West Chester, Pa., February 23d, 1884. 

Pursuant to the foregoing call, published in the Local News of 
this place, and signed by Lewis Y. Evans of Coatesville and by 
R. Bruce Wallace of Philadelphia, seventeen survivors of the 
Ninety-seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, assembled at 
2 o'clock this P. M. at the Green Tree Hotel in this borough. 

By the terms of the call the meeting was for the purpose of 
taking measures to bring about a Reunion of the Regiment as soon 
as practicable. 

The following were present : 

Captain F. M. Guss, Co. A, 

Captain Leonard R. Thomas, Co. C, 

Sergeant Isaac A. Cleaver, Co. C, 

Private John J. Still, Co. C, 

Private Oliver B. Channell, Co. C, 

Private Samuel A. March, Co. C, 

Quartermaster David Jones, 

Fife-Major C. C. Fahnestock, 

Sergeant George L. Smith, Co. E, 

Brevet-Lieutenant-Colonel D. W. C. Lewis, Co. F, 

Private Evan Pharaoh, Co. F, 

Corporal Barnett R. Rapp, Co. K. 

On motion the following officers were appointed : Isaac A. 
Cleaver, chairman ; Oliver B. Channell, treasurer, and Leonard R. 
Thomas, secretary. 

It was moved and seconded that a Reunion be held as soon as 
it can be brought about. Agreed to. 

(3) 



On motion it was resolved to call a preliminary meeting of the 
survivors, to be held in Cabinet Hall, West Chester, at 2 P. M., 
May 3d, 1884. 

To assist the secretary in procuring the names and addresses 
of surviving comrades, the following named were appointed : Samuel 
A. March, David Jones, Geo. L. Smith and Evan Pharaoh. 

A subscription amounting to $5.50 was raised to defray the 
expenses of correspondence. 



On motion adjourned. 



L. R. Thomas, Secretary. 



PROCEEDINGS OP MEETING MAY 3d, 1884. 

THE NINETY-SEVENTH PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS. 

After many years they meet again in West Chester. 

The preliminary meeting for the furtherance of the proposed 
Reunion of the old Ninety-seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Volun- 
teers, held in West Chester, Saturday afternoon, May 3d, 1884, was at- 
tended by sixty-nine survivors of that well-known military body, which 
went forth from here in the cause of the Union more than a score 
of years ago. The meeting was an enthusiastic one in every respect, 
its dehberations being characterized by the best of good feeling, 
giving evidence that hereafter the bonds of brotherhood are to be 
more strongly united among the remaining comrades. At 2.30 
o'clock I. A. Cleaver rapped the assemblage to order, and stated 
what had been done in order to gather the boys together once more. 
The temporary secretary read the minutes of the previous meeting, 
held in the Green Tree Hotel, a full account of which has been 
published. Suffice it to say that at that gathering there were seven- 
teen of the comrades, who elected as temporary officers I. A. 
Cleaver, president ; L. R. Thomas, secretary, and O. B. Channell, 
treasurer; " that the secretary was authorized to communicate with 
all the old members of the regiment whose post-office addresses he 
could secure, in reference to the proposed Reunion, and also to call 
a meeting of the same for that purpose, to be held on May 3d 
in the Cabinet Hall, West Chester." The minutes were approved as 
read. 

Colonel Isaiah Price then arose, and in a few well-chosen 
remarks stated that he hoped the good work commenced, would 
result in such an organization of the old members of the Ninety- 
seventh as would reflect credit upon it and place on a firm basis an 



association that would survive until the last man of them had gone 
to meet the spirits of those who had fallen in battle by their com- 
rades' sides some twenty years ago. He was glad to see so many 
of them about him looking hale and hearty ; was happy to notice 
that great interest had been taken in the movement ; he wanted a 
society formed in which they could all meet annually to talk over 
by-gone times and relate camp-fire reminiscences, besides the 
gathering together and keeping intact all records and historical 
papers relating to the Regiment during its service in the war. He 
concluded by moving that a committee of five be appointed to pre- 
pare a constitution and by-laws to govern the proposed association. 
His remarks were loudly applauded and his motion heartily approved 
by the comrades. The chair then named Colonel Price, L. R. 
Thomas, R. B. Wallace, E. L. Schofield and D. W. C. Lewis to serve 
as a committee for that purpose. They were also instructed to 
name suitable persons for permanent officers of the association, 
during their deliberations, whose names could afterward be sub- 
mitted to the meeting for action. The committee then retired, and 
the chair appointed Serg't-Major Hawley to officiate as secretary in 
the absence of L. R. Thomas, who was appointed on the committee. 
A list of the names of the members present was then desired, 
when a member proposed that the old roll be called. The chair 
stated that, as the roll was not at hand, and that it would only revive 
sad memories to hear comrades' names mentioned who were dead 
and gone, it were best that two or three of those present go among 
the members and get their names and addresses, also company 
letter, which was done with the following result : 

FIELD OFFICERS. 

Colonel H. R. Guss, Brevet-Colonel Isaiah Price, Surgeon 
John R. Everhart, Quartermaster David Jones, all of West Chester. 

NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF. 

Sergeant-Major Samuel W. Hawley, Media; Fife-Major Casper 
C. Fahnestock, West Chester. 

CO. A. 

Captain F. M. Guss, First Lieutenant Abel Griffith, West 
Chester ; First Lieutenant Harry T. Gray and Private Edward R. 
Eisenbeis, Philadelphia ; Alexander M. Chandler, Spread Eagle, 
Chester Co. ; John A. Grofif, West Chester. 

CO. B. 

Corporal R. Bruce Wallace, Philadelphia ; Private Samuel 
Miles, West Chester, 



CO. c. 
Captain Leonard R. Thomas, First Lieutenants Emmor G. 
Griffith, West Chester, and George W. Able, Concordville, Dela- 
ware Co. ; Sergeants Isaac A. Cleaver, Berwyn ; Stephen H. Eachus, 
West Chester, B. Lundy Kent (Captain Eighteenth Heavy Artillery, 
U. S. C. T.), Wilmington, Del. ; Corporals Jesse D. Farra, Davis O. 
Taylor, and Privates Samuel A. March, Oliver B. Channell and 
Emmor B. Hickman, West Chester ; J. Jones Still, Malvern ; Wil- 
liam D. Thomas, Downingtown ; James J. Dewees, New Centreville; 
George W. Walton, Philadelphia ; Isaac Paschall, Newtown Square, 
Delaware Co. 

CO. D. 

Corporal Robert Fairlamb, Elwyn, Delaware Co. ; Privates 
Walter Pyle, Cheyney, Delaware Co. ; Abraham P'awkes, East 
Whiteland ; Wm. Mcintosh, Downingtown. 

CO. E. 

Sergeant Geo. L. Smith, Musician Charles Riley, Jr., West 
Chester ; Privates Michael Connor, Malvern ; James A. Riley, 
Coatesville ; George W. Eavenson, Thornton, Delaware Co. 

CO. F. 

Captain and Brevet- Lieutenant- Colonel D. W. C. Lewis, First 
Lieutenant Thomas Cosgriff, West Chester ; Sergeant Samuel Wynn, 
Nantmeal Village ; Herman P. Brower, West Whiteland ; Corporal 
Jesse M. Boyles and Private Evan Pharaoh,West Chester ; Privates Eli 
Reynolds, Birdsboro', Berks Co. ; William E. Stiteler, Columbia, Pa. 

CO. G. 

Captain Caleb Hoopes, Media ; Second Lieutenants Joseph M. 
Borrell and William H. Eves, Chester, Delaware Co. ; Sergeants 
Charles E. Ottey. Media, Charles Gray, and Corporals John S. Cul- 
bert, Joseph R. Parsons, Chester, Delaware Co., and Hillery Fox, 
West Chester, Pa., and Private Crosley B. Wilson, Media. 

CO. H. 
Captain George A. Lemaistre, Wilmington, Del. ; Musicians 
Charles C. Taylor, William Dallings, and Teamster Marshall B. Eng- 
land,West Chester ; Privates Alfred C. Allison, Downingtown ; Abia 
C. E. Miller, Philadelphia, and William M. Steele, Phcenixville. 

CO. I. 

Private James Groff, Clifton Heights, Delaware Co. 

CO. K. 

Captain William Wayne, Paoli, and First Lieutenant William 
M. Sullivan, Warren Tavern ; Corporals William Taylor, Woods- 
town, N. J. ; Barnett R. Rapp, West Chester ; E. Lane Schofield, 
Paoli, and Private William Miles, Willistown. Total, 69 comrades. 

During this feature of the proceedings the men could not retain 
their composure, it had been so long since they had an opportunity 



of greeting one another in that way. Hands were shaken again- 
and again, shoulders were slapped, jokes were cracked, compliments 
were exchanged, and a running fire of merriment was kept up, much 
to the annoyance of the comrades who were trying to secure the 
list of their names. 

One old man, who had come in his regimental uniform, stood 
in the doorway and fairly laughed with joy at the sight of so many 
faces he knew so well. He was older than any of the rest of them, 
but his spirits were just as light as in the days when he " drank from 
the same canteen " with those around him. His long white hair 
peeped out nicely from beneath the " sojer cap " on his head, which 
familiar tile he at last, in the exhuberance of his spirits, pulled off 
and gave three rousing cheers for " the old Ninety-seventh." 

The committee returned as the echoes of the old comrade's 
cheers died away, and reported the following constitution and 
by-laws : 

CONSTITUTION. 

I. The name of this association shall be " The Society of the 
Ninety-seventh Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers." 

n. Any honorably discharged officer or soldier, who at any time 
has served in the said Ninety-seventh Regiment of Pennsylvania 
Volunteers, shall be entitled to membership in the Society. 

HI. The object of the Society shall be the promotion of kindly 
feeling, the revival of old associations, and the collection and preser- 
vation of records of the services rendered by this Regiment during 
the " War of the Rebellion." 

IV. The officers of the Society shall consist of a president, 
three vice-presidents, secretary, treasurer and historian, who shall 
be, with the exception of the historian, elected at each annual meet- 
ing of the Society. 

V. The duties of the president shall be to preside at the annual 
meetings, to call such other meetings of the Society as may be 
necessary, and to issue such orders as may be required for the good 
government and control of the Society. 

VI. The first vice-president shall exercise the powers of the 
president in case of the absence of that officer. 

VII. The secretary shall keep a record of the minutes of the 
proceedings of the Society, a roll of the members, and perform all 
duties usually pertaining to the office of secretary. 

VIII. The treasurer shall have the custody of all funds, to be 
expended only on approval of the president, by an order drawn and 



countersigned by the secretary ; and he shall render an account of 
all disbursements at the annual meeting of the Society. 

IX. The historian shall collect and preserve for the use of the 
Society such history of the Regiment and its service as may be 
obtainable, and such papers, records, etc., as may from time to time 
be added to the collection which may serve to preserve the record 
of the Regiment after its survivors shall have passed on to join those 
comrades who fell during the conflict. 

X. An executive committee of five members shall be elected 
annually, who shall attend to the business of the Association during 
the intervals of its session. 

XI. Having a fraternal feeling for and honoring the glorious 
efforts of our brothers in arms belonging to other regiments who 
have shared with us in service, the president, vice-presidents or any 
member shall be authorized to invite the attendance at our annual 
meeting of any officer or soldier of any sister regiment. 

BY-LAWS. 

I. The entrance fee of the Society shall be $i.oo. 

II. The annual dues shall be 50 cents, payable at the annual 
"meeting. 

III. The president shall determine the time and place of each 
annual meeting, being governed in his selections thereof as far as 
practicable by the time and place of meeting of the Society of the 
Army of the James or of the Tenth Army Corps, or other organi- 
zations with which our Regiment was identified. 

IV. When the place for the next annual meeting shall have 
been decided upon, the president shall appoint three members, resi- 
dent at or near the place, whose duty it shall be to assist the execu- 
tive committee in making all needful arrangements and preparations 
for such meeting. 

V. This Constitution and By-Laws may be altered and 
amended by a vote of two-thirds of the members present at any 
annual meeting, providing such alteration or amendment shall have 
been presented in writing at the previous annual meeting. 

At the conclusion of the reading of the above constitution and 
by-laws, it was moved and seconded that they be adopted as read, 
which motion was carried unanimously. The committee then 
reported the names of the following comrades to fill the offices 
created by the constitution : 

President, Colonel Henry R. Guss ; first vice-president, I. A. 



Cleaver, C ; second vice-president, Captain Wm. Wayne, K ; third 
vice-president, Captain Caleb Hoopes, G; secretary, Captain L. R. 
Thomas, C ; treasurer, William Taylor, K ; executive committee, 
Sergeant-Major Samuel W. Hawley ; Robert Fairlamb, D ; Her- 
man P. Brower, F ; Lieutenant Wm. H. Eves, G ; Captain Wm. S. 
Underwood, K. 

The members named for the various offices were elected by 
acclamation. 

Colonel Guss then took the chair, and after thanking his fellow 
comrades in arms for the honor conferred upon him in having been 
called upon to preside over their deliberations, he said he was ready 
to proceed to business. A short recess was here taken to allow 
members an opportunity to pay the entrance fee of $i, when the 
meeting was again called to order. 

Comrade William Taylor, who had been elected treasurer, asked 
to be excused from serving on account of his living so far away 
from Chester County — at Woodstown, New Jersey. His request 
was accordingly granted, and Oliver B. Channell, West Chester, was 
elected treasurer of the Society. 

The chair then named West Chester as the place and October 
29th as the date for holding the Reunion, and appointed John A. 
Groft, S. A. March and B. R. Rapp as a committee to assist the 
executive committee in preparing for the event. The office of 
" historian " not having yet been filled. Colonel Isaiah Price's name 
was proposed, and he was elected by the voice of the entire assem- 
blage. 

A comrade then arose and proposed for honorary membership 
the name of Mrs. Mary St. John of Philadelphia, which was 
received with great applause. Her name was at once entered upon 
the books. Mrs. St. John, who was the wife of the Drum-Major, 
James St. John, joined the Regiment as they marched through 
Philadelphia, as laundress, her home being in the above city. Her 
two youngest sons were also members of the Regiment as drummer 
boys. She stayed with the Regiment until 1864, and rendered 
valuable service to the sick and wounded. 

With the secretary asking the members present to send all 
names of the absent comrades they knew to him, the meeting ad- 
journed amid much enthusiasm. 

Comrades wishing to enroll as members of the Society will 
please send their names, with entrance fee, to the secretary, L. R. 
Thomas, West Chester, Pa. 



lO 

The committee intend to hold reveille on the morning of the 
Reunion, in front of the Court House, from which point the 
Regiment will march to the place where the event is to be held ; 
the exact spot, for holding the contemplated Reunion, being as yet 
not determined upon. The day chosen is the anniversary of the 
formal organization of the Regiment at Camp Wayne, West Chester, 
on October 29th, 1861. 

MINUTES OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

West Chester, September 4th, 1884. 

Pursuant to call of the chairman, the executive committee of 
the Society of the Ninety-seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Volun- 
teers, met at the office of John A. Groft^ at 2 P. M. Chairman S. W. 
Hawley presided. Present : Robert Fairlamb, W. S. Underwood, 
I. A. Cleaver, Wm. H. Eves, S. A. March and Colonel H. R. Guss. 

A committee on music and one on decorations were appointed. 

S. W. Hawley and L. R. Thomas were appointed to arrange 
for an orator and chaplain. 

It was decided to provide a dinner, to be paid for from funds 
raised by subscription among the members of the Regiment. 

S. A. March was appointed treasurer of the executive committee. 

Adjourned to meet at same place at 2 P. M., September igth. 

L. R. Thomas, Secretary. 

West Chester, September 19th, 1884. 

The executive committee met at the time and place appointed, 
S. W. Hawley presiding. Most of the committee, with B. R. Rapp, 
S. A. March and John A. Groff of the assistant committee, present. 
Colonel Guss and others gave their advice and assistance. It was 
resolved to hold the exercises of the Reunion at the Fair Grounds. 
John A. Groff was appointed to ascertain the terms upon which the 
use thereof could be had. 

The committee on orator and chaplain reported that Chaplain 
D. W. Moore would attend and officiate ; and that Comrade Marriott 
Brosius had accepted the invitation to deliver the oration. The 
other committees reported progress. John A. Groff was appointed 
to get estimates of the cost of furnishing dinner for one hundred 
and fifty, to be gotten up in a style suitable to the occasion. 

It was decided to have appropriate toasts prepared, to be read 
and responded to at the banquet on the occasion of the Reunion. 

Committee then adjourned to meet at the office of John A. 
Groff at 2 P. M., October 3d, 1884. L. R. Thomas, Secretary. 



West Chester, October 3d, 1884. 

The executive committee met at the time and place appointed. 
Chairman Hawley presided. Present: John A. Groff, H. P. Brower, 
W. H. Eves, W. S. Underwood, L. R. Thomas, S. A. March and 
David Jones. 

It was resolved to have the dinner served in the Agricultural 
Building at the Fair Grounds. Committee on decorations reported 
progress. On music progress. On Fair Grounds reported they 
can be had for $10.00. Report was accepted and committee dis- 
charged. Mr. Groff reported an estimate for the dinner in accord- 
ance with a bill of fare adopted by the committee, to be placed 
upon the table with proper attendants, as follows: For 150 plates, 
$1.75 per plate; for 200 plates, $1.50 per plate. On motion the last 
estimate was accepted, and the order given to furnish and serve 
properly in accordance with the bill of fare for two hundred plates 
for the dinner on October 2gth at the Fair Grounds. S. A.- March 
was appointed a committee to arrange the tables, etc., in the building 
selected. The programme was substantially arranged as follows : 

Comrades to meet at the grounds at 11 A. M. Oct. 29th, 1884. 
Business meeting from 11 A. M. to 12 M. ; oration from 12 to i P. M. 
orafter; dinnerfrom 1.30 to 2.30 P.M. The secretary was authorized 
to have 300 copies of the programme printed, including the bill of 
fare, and directed to send one to every survivor whom he could 
reach. D. W. C. Lewis agreed to see that the stand for the purpose 
of the exercises and the oration should be erected in time. Committee 
adjourned to meet at 2 P. M. on Oct. 25th, at Mr. Groff 's office. 

L. R. Thomas, Sec7'etary. 

West Chester, October 25th, 1884. 

An adjourned meeting of the executive committee was held at 
the time and place appointed. Chairman Hawley presided. Present : 
Comrades Underwood, Fairlamb, Eves, March, Rapp, Colonel 
H. R. Guss, I. A. Cleaver, H. C. Reagan and others. 

Committee on music reported that Dr. H. C. Wood's Orches- 
tra had been engaged to perform for the occasion at a price not to 
exceed $25.00 ; the members of the orchestra to have dinner free. 

Committee on decorations reported having made arrangements 
to have the work done at a cost of $25.00 or thereabouts. 

Colonel D. W. C. Lewis and Major D. Jones were appointed a 
committee to extend a proper reception to the orator of the day. 
Comrade Brosius, and to receive Mrs. St. John with carriage at 
depot and convey her to the grounds. Adjourned to meet at call of 
chairman. L. R. Thomas, Secretary. 



Reunion of Ihe flinetf-Sevenlli [iegi[iienl|Penna,Volunteefs, 

At West Chester, Pa., October 29th, 1884. 

The day set apart, and long anticipated, for this interesting 
event opened with skies overcast with gray clouds, that yet lingered 
from the stormy day preceding, as though typical of the clouds and 
storms of war from which the remnant about to meet had emerged 
twenty-three years ago, "when the curtain fell upon the Drama of 
the Rebellion," permitting the survivors of the war to return to their 
homes and receive the grateful welcome that there awaited them. 

By 9 o'clock the streets of the town were occupied by groups 
of bronzed-faced, sturdy men, who had arrived by train or other 
conveyances, and taking their way toward the central point of 
gravitation, the old " Headquarters " at the " Green Tree," halted by 
the way at corners of streets when meeting other familiar faces of 
like acquaintance with the " signs of service," and having the same 
earnest gaze in quest of recognition of some old comrade, in the 
whitened locks of more than twenty years' bleaching; then the 
mutual recall between long-separated comrades, of the traces of 
the younger face in each, that caused the rush together, and the 
grasp of hand, and the " How are you, old boy ? " and the " Well, I 
declare, if that ain't my old bunk-mate ! I shouldn't have known 
you for the young rooster that used to play off your pranks on the 
boys." So here goes for the old game of ear-pulling and the 
thumps, and the " ayau !" with which the old camp used to resound. 

Such were some of the first retouchings of elbows that initiated 
the reassembling in front of the Colonel's old hostelry as in the 
former days. And here the comrades continued to assemble as the 
morning hours wore on, the greetings becoming more and more 
numerous and cordial. One would point out to another — " There 
is Dave M. Taylor of Co. A, cashier of the Oxford Bank ; " or 
" Captain Dallas Crow, Co. B. He handles the money of the 
Adams Express Company in Philadelphia now. And here is 
Corporal Davis O. Taylor of Co. C, who is running before the people, 
as he never ran before the enemy, for the office of Clerk of the 
Courts of Chester County, and sure to win at that. And over there 
by that corner post is Walter Pyle of Co. D, who can still build a 

(I2) 



13 

stone wall to stay, as he did in his younger days — solid to the front 
in every duty as a soldier and a master mason. Co. E is repre- 
sented over yonder by Sergeant Signet of Phoenixville, who works 
now amid the grime and smoke of the iron furnaces there, as in the 
old days he did in the trenches before Wagner under the smoke of 
rebel guns. Who could expect to recognize Sergeant Herman P. 
Brower of Co. F, who had counted but eighteen years when he 
shouldered his musket, and didn't tire of it in '64, but re-enlisted for 
the war, and now, after twenty-three years' wear has added to his eigh- 
teen, the man of forty-one might easily be passed without any of 
the boys picking him out, but the touch of palm and the glance of 
the eye entitle him to " the pass-word and the grip." 

A pair of bright black eyes look out from a solid smooth face, upon 
which a smile is seen as he grasps the hand of one standing near him, 
and he says," You don't know me ; do you, captain ?" There is a famili- 
arity in the features that tells of a boy full of fun and mischief, with a 
smartness that could often circumvent the closest watchfulness of supe- 
rior officers, more to their annoyance than any very serious con- 
sequence ! Yes, that eye and that glance, with the cordial smile of 
greeting must belong to young Sullivan of Co. H ! The pleasure of 
his remembrance and proffered greeting was one of the brightest in- 
cidents of the day. The man matured from the soldier boy is one 
worthy of full comradeship with his fellow survivors of the war. He 
became a good soldier and now helps to build ships as a machinist 
at Wilmington, Del. And there is Pioneer Snyder of Co. G, whose 
tall form shows his unchanged face beaming with the delight of meet- 
ing so many who have not forgotten his familiar features. 

Over there Lindsay of Co. I is hunting up some of " the squad," 
and he will find them on hand sure, as they always put in an appear- 
ance when wanted, brave and sturdy and with much of the vigor of 
their brave and lamented captain, Hawkins. 

The boys of the " Honorable Member's " Company, and he too, 
are on hand, and Captain Underwood has succeeded in reorgan- 
izing the old drum corps for the occasion, and Cass Fahnestock 
and Riley are about to sound the " call for the assembling." 

At a quarter to 11 o'clock Major Price called upon the boys 
" to fall in." Promptly the veterans took their places in the ranks, 
while the crowd of lookers-on remained upon the sidewalks inter- 
ested spectators of " forming the line." As the men separated from 
the crowd, and stood again in solid phalanx together, the esprit de 
corps was renewed as if by magic, and the old martial bearing 



returned, bridging the interval of the years of peaceful pursuits and 
bringing back in vivid realization the influence of the soldier's ready 
obedience to the command of "Attention ! " " Forward March ! " 
taking up the step at the sound of the same fife and drum that had 
so often called them forth to the march and the field of battle. 
Captain W. S. Underwood conducted the music on the right. 
Colonel John Wainwright and Brevet-Colonel Isaiah Price led the 
one hundred and sixty-eight officers and men, who then marched 
out Gay Street to Church, down Church Street to the Fair Grounds, 
where they were met by Colonel Guss and Lieutenant-Colonel A. P. 
Duer, the committee of arrangements and the special committee 
having charge of the reception of the orator of the day, Hon. 
Marriott Brosius; and Mrs. St. John and daughter, had preceded the 
veterans to the place of meeting in carriages, and also about forty 
of the comrades who had previously walked to the grounds. The 
battalion was halted in front of the stand, erected in rear of the 
track stand, for the exercises of the day. It was appropriately 
draped with the national flag, having an awning canopy, and a 
beautiful bouquet of flowers upon the table. 

Announcement was then made requesting the men of the dif- 
ferent companies to assemble in groups and proceed to register 
their names, and post-office addresses with the secretary of the 
association. Captain Leonard R.Thomas, who occupied the managers' 
office adjacent to the stand for this purpose. 

During this proceeding the president of the association, Colonel 
H. R. Guss, accompanied by the orator of the day, Hon. Marriott 
Brosius, Second Lieutenant of Co. K ; Colonel John Wainwright, 
Rev. David W. Moore, Chaplain; and Brevet-Colonel Isaiah Price, 
historian of the Regiment, occupied the platform. Soon after taking 
their seats the reception committee, Colonel D. W. C. Lewis and 
Major David Jones, brought to the stand Mother St. John, comfort- 
ably wrapped from the cold, and seated her in a large rocking-chair 
in the presence of the comrades, who greeted her with three hearty 
cheers. 

Colonel Guss called the meeting to order, and said : 

Comrades of the. Ninety-seventh Regiment and Mother St. John : 
It affords me much pleasure to welcome you here upon the First 
Reunion of our old Regiment, hoping to have the pleasure of see- 
ing you and many more members of the old Regiment at our future 
meetings. Knowing many of your number have traveled many 
miles to be with us this day, shows the interest you have taken in 



15 

the meeting. Hoping this interest may grow with all, many thanks 
for your presence here to-day, and hoping you may all have 
a very pleasant day and one you will long remember with pleasure, 
I now introduce the Chaplain of the Regiment, Rev. D. W. Moore, 
who will open the exercises with prayer. 

The Chaplain then came forward and offered the following 
beautiful and touching address to the throne of Grace : 

PRAYER BY THE CHAPLAIN. 

O thou who art the Lord God of the heavens above and the 
earth beneath ; thou Creator of all things therein, and thou who art 
our kind Preserver and most merciful Benefactor, we would not 
assemble here and 7iow without seeking thy benediction. 

O Lord, thou hast been very good to us, in that thou hast 
spared us to come together to-day, after many years of separation 
and of varied vicissitudes, since we were together as soldiers fight- 
ing the battles of our beloved country, and for which many of our 
original numbers fell dead on the field of carnage; or died in 
hospitals, nursed by loving hearts and tender hands, at home ; or in 
the horrible prisons of the South, with nothing to comfort or cheer 
their dying hours. O Lord, we have not forgotten the many trying 
experiences of the past, nor would we ever forget them. Especially 
would we remember that " thy banner over us has been love." And 
we render thee thanks this day for all of thy goodness and gracious 
dealings. And we thank thee, O Lord, for the preservation of our 
country — for the Union of these States— and for the overthrow of 
Rebellion. 

And we do most earnestly beseech thee to continue thy favor 
unto this our native land. Suffer no enemy to invade our shores, 
and keep us from destroying ourselves by internal strifes and 
political seditions. O thou God of our Revolutionary fathers, grant 
us thy grace, and their spirit of patriotism, which will lead us as a 
people to make sacrifices of all personal and party considerations 
for the good and perpetuity of the nation at large. 

And now, O Lord, will thou forgive us of our many sins, both 
as soldiers and as people ? We all have sinned and come short of 
the glory of the Lord. In thy rich grace and mercy pardon us of 
all transgressions, and lift up the light of thy countenance and smile 
upon all of us who are here to-day. And forget not to bless the 
soldier's widow and his orphan children. Be good and kind, 



i6 

O Lord, to those who have suffered the loss of all that was dear to 
them for the sake of our American liberties. 

Hear, O Lord, and answer these our feeble supplications, and 
save us all in thy kingdom above, for Jesus' sake. Amen. 

Colonel Guss then stated the first business in order would be 
the reading of the proceedings of the meetings preliminary to this 
one, at which the Association of the Ninety-seventh Regiment was 
formed, and which had fixed upon the time and place of holding 
this Reunion ; but as the secretary of the association was now 
engaged in making the registry of the names of the comrades, he 
would call upon the historian of the Regiment, Brevet-Colonel 
Isaiah Price, to read a paper he had prepared for this occasion. 

The following is the historical sketch read at the Reunion by 
Colonel Price : 

REUNION NINETY-SEVENTH REGIMENT P. V. 

October 2gth, 1S84. 

Comrades ! As your historian, entrusted with the duty of pre- 
serving the record of service in which our Regiment participated 
during the war of the Rebellion, it is with a degree of satisfaction 
commensurate with the pride we all may indulge in feeling, from having 
borne a part in those services, in whatever station, that I may refer 
you to the published record it was my privilege to prepare ten years 
ago, of which I need only say, some of your number have given me 
the best assurances oi their appreciation of its interest to them. 

That narrative brings the account down to the close of the war, 
the return of the discharged veterans to receive the well-deserved, 
honored welcome from their fellow-citizens, friends, and their anx- 
iously-expectant families, parents, sisters, brothers and lovers. 

It contains also the record roll of each man's service in detail, 
whether found among those of you who returned to claim and receive 
the glad welcome that awaited you, or with the long list of those who 
laid down life for their country ! whom we left upon the field of battle 
to sleep the calm, eternal sleep in which repose those devoted 
patriot martyrs. 

It also gives the proceedings had in regard to the erection of 
the proposed monument, so long the subject of conjecture and criti- 
cism regarding its completion. The delay is therein explained as 
due to the objections, as to location, on the part of the residents in 
or owners of the properties adjacent to the site that was formally des- 



17 

ignated by the borough authorities for its erection — on the west hne 
of Church Street, in the middle of Market Street, on a plot twelve feet 
square, enclosed by an iron railing. 

Trusting that in time this opposition would be withdrawn, the 
trustees of the monument fund, who are charged with the duty of 
building the monument, have quietly waited for some evidence 
of such change of feeling in regard to that location. 

Nearly two years ago the subject was again revived by the 
trustees and the secretary of the Monument Association, when in 
view of the continued opposition to the proposed site, another was 
suggested as available, although all are united in opinion that no 
other in West Chester could be so appropriate or desirable as the 
one already designated. 

Having ascertained that the lot on which the old basin is located 
is no longer required by the borough for that purpose and was to 
be leveled and added to " Marshall Square," the trustees with the 
secretary joined in petitioning the borough council of last year to 
grant them the western half of that lot with the foundation of half 
the old basin as a site for the monument, at such time as the council 
should be prepared to abandon its present use. The proposition 
was favorably entertained by a portion of the members, but the 
majority at that time was not inclined to favor monument building. 
Action was therefore deferred to await a more auspicious considera- 
tion. The incoming of the board of the present year gave expectation 
of greater favor for our application. This has been verified by 
the assurances received that the present board are united in purpose 
to grant our request when the material of the present basin shall be 
removed, as it is required for use in other borough improvements. 

The trustees will accordingly proceed with the erection of the 
monument at that locality, when the ground shall be made ready tor 
its reception. The delay, it will be seen, has been of such unavoid- 
able nature as to attach no censure to the trustees, who have been 
ready and willing to comply with the duties of their trust, at all times 
since their appointment. 

It will be unnecessary to recount in this paper the proceedings 
preliminary to the present reunion of the members of the regiment, 
as these are already recorded in the minutes of the meetings pre- 
viously held by the secretary thereof, and in the recorded action of 
the committee appointed to prepare for these interesting ceremonies 
in which we are now engaged. 

The only remaining duty for the historian will consist in collect- 
la) 



ing and recording such individual accounts of those who have fulfilled 
the record of life, as may become known to him, that each record 
may be filled out to the final discharge, so that future generations 
may know who were the last to respond to the "roll call" when all 
shall be assembled in that final meeting of "the grand army above." 

The account thus collected will also embrace the mention of 
such public service or position as may be occupied by any of our 
number, or whatever matter of public interest may come to the notice 
of the historian. It will greatly assist these labors if each member 
of the regiment will forward to his address at West Chester, Pa., a 
brief record of the time and place of death, nature of disease, etc., 
of any of our number that may be known at any time by him, and 
also any fact of public interest such as is indicated herein. 

The first name calling for our notice is one distinguished in the 
service of his country, whom we all honor for his brave deeds and 
pity for his painful wounds received while with us in the volunteer 
defence of our country, while yet a lad, displaying those qualities of 
the true soldier which have entitled him to receive the distinguished 
recognition of an appointment rarely accorded outside the training 
received at West Point. Following his record in the U. S. Army 
from the point at which it is left in the history of the regiment. 
General Pennypacker has commanded as follows: 

1874. Commanding Sixteenth Infantry and Post of Nashville, 
January to August. Commanding U. S. troops in New Orleans 
("Overturning of the Kellogg State Government"), September and 
October. Commanding Sixteenth Infantry and Post of Nashville, 
November and December. President General Court Martial at 
Lebanon, Ky., in April. Same duty at Nashville in May. 

1875. Commanding Sixteenth Infantry and Post of Nashville, 
January to December, including President General Court-martial at 
Mobile in August. Commanding escort, funeral of President John- 
son, at Nashville, October 2d. 

1876. Commanding Sixteenth Infantry and Post of Nashville, 
January to June. Commanding military escort at funeral of Major- 
General Gordon Granger, at Lexington, Ky., January 25th, 1S76. 
Commanding Department of the South, with headquarters at Louis- 
ville, Ky., July, August and September. Commanding Sixteenth 
Infantry and Newport Barracks, Ky., October. Commanding Six- 
teenth Infantry and Mount Vernon Barracks, Ala., November. 
Commanding Sixteenth Infantry and U. S. troops in Custom-house, 
New Orleans (during the "electoral count"), December. 



19 

1877- Commanding Sixteenth Infantry and U. S. troops in 
Custom-house, New Orleans, January to June. Commanding Six- 
teenth Infantry and Fort Riley, Kan., July to December. President 
General Court-martial, Fort Lyon, Col., August and September. 
Member General Court-martial, Fort Union, New Mexico, December. 

1878. Commanding Sixteenth Infantry and Fort Riley, Kan., 
January to December inclusive. Member of Retiring Board at 
Fort Leavenworth, Kan., October, November and December. 

1879. Commanding Sixteenth Infantry and Fort Riley, Kan., 
January to March. President Court of Inquiry at Fort Stanton' 
New Mexico ("the Lincoln County murder"), April, May, June,' 
July and August. Member General Court-martial at Fort Leaven- 
worth, Kan., September. Commanding Sixteenth Infantry and 
Fort Riley, Kan., October, November and December. Member 
General Court-martial, Fort Riley, Kan., October and November. 

1880. Commanding Sixteenth Infantry and Fort Riley, Kan., 
January to October. President General Court-martial, San Anto- 
nio, Texas, November. Commanding Sixteenth Infantry and Post 
of San Antonio, December. 

1 88 1. Commanding Sixteenth Infantry and Post of San Anto- 
nio, Texas, January to April. Commanding Sixteenth Infantry and 
Fort McKavett, Texas, May to December. President General 
Court-martial, Fort Davis, Texas (for the trial of Lieutenant Flip- 
per, "the colored officer of the army";, September, October, 
November and December. 

18S2. Commanding Sixteenth Infantry and Fort McKavett, 
Texas, January to June. On leave of absence and in Europe (on 
surgeon's certificate of disability on account of wounds received in 
battle), July to December. 

1883. On leave of absence and in Europe, January to May. 
Transferred from the active to the retired list of the Regular Army, 
by direction of the President of the United States, July 3d, 1883. on 
account of disability arising from severe wounds received in action. 

1884. Residence in Philadelphia. 

Brevet-Colonel Isaiah Price. Having made application to the 
War Department for muster upon his commission as Major, received 
while in command of the Regiment at Cold Harbor, Va., in June, 
1864, being then and subsequently prevented from muster by the 
absence, wounded, of Colonel Pennypacker, the following order was 
issued granting the application : 



Special Order No. 277. Headquarters of the Army, Adjutant-General's Office, 

Washington, D. C, December 4th, 1883. 

EXTRACT. 

2. By direction of the Secretary of War, under the joint reso- 
lution approved July nth, 1870 (amendatory of the joint resolution 
approved July 26th, 1866), and to complete his record, the muster- 
out of service of Captain Isaiah Price, Company C, Ninety-seventh 
Pennsylvania Volunteers, September 17th, 1864, is amended to take 
effect June 6th, 1864. He is mustered into service as Major of said 
Regiment to date June 7th, 1864, and mustered out and honorably 
discharged as Major to date September 17th, 1864, and he is 
mustered for pay in said grade during the period embraced between 
the aforesaid dates. The amount of pay and allowances received 
by him as Captain subsequent to June 6th, 1864, and to which as 
Major he is not entitled, will be deducted in making payment under 
this order. 

By command of Lieutenant-General Sheridan. 
[Official.] R. C. Drum, Adjutant-General. 

(Signed) S. N. Benjamin, Assistant Adjutant- General. 

Assistant Surgeon William C. Morrison. Resumed the practice 
of his profession after his return from the service in 1865 at Coch- 
ranville, Chester County, Pa., where he continued in practice until 
his health failed, about the year 1883. He declined rapidly, and 
died of Bright's disease at the above place on February 19th, 1884, 
and was buried at Faggs' Manor Burial Ground on Saturday, Feb- 
ruary 23d, aged 43 years. 

Hospital Steward Reuben H. Smith, M. D. After the war 
resumed the practice of medicine at Wilmington, Delaware, where 
he remained until his health failed, early in 1882, when he came to 
reside in West Chester with his son, Stephen T. Smith, until his 
death, which took place March 6th, 1883, aged 71 years. 

Principal Musician James St. John. Died in Philadelphia of 
consumption, contracted from exposure in the service, on March 
17th, 1868. He was buried in Lafayette Cemetery, Tenth and Fed- 
eral Streets, Philadelphia. 

CO. A. 

First Lieutenant Frank C. Henry. Died at Coatesville Feb- 
ruary 26th, 1880. 

Second Lieutenant Joseph Philips. Died. 

John A. Grofif. After having served as Recorder was elected 
a Magistrate for the borough of West Chester, Pa., March 13th, 
1877, and served until 1882. 



21 



Corporal Jacob Daubman. Died. 

George M. Mintzer. Died. 

Lewis Cochran. Died. 

Joseph Edward Stott. Died January 13th, 1877. 

James M. Haines. Erroneously reported dead, is living at 
Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 

David M. Taylor. Was elected cashier of the Farmers' National 
Bank at Oxford, Chester County, Pa. He has continued to fulfill 
the duties of his responsible position with an honest fidelity and care, 
that in these days of financial crookedness and degeneracy on the 
part of so many high and trusted bank officials is most commend- 
able. 

Robert H. Humpton. Died. 

Joseph E. Valentine. Immediately after his discharge from the 
service he entered upon preparation for the dental profession. He 
graduated with creditable success at the Pennsylvania College of Den- 
tal Surgery, in Philadelphia, in the class of 1867-68. He soon after 
located in the practice of his profession at Wilkesbarre, Luzerne 
County, Pa., where for several years he was successfully engaged. 
He now resides in Philadelphia, practicing his profession. 
Jacob B. James. Died. 

Edward O'Neil. Died. 

Caleb Townsend. Died. 

Andrew K. Wright. Died. 

CO. B. 

Captain Dallas Crow. Obtained a position in the money 
department of the Adams Express Company shortly after his dis- 
charge from the service. He has continued to receive the fullest 
confidence of the company. His duties are of the most responsible 
character, requiring not only accuracy and promptness, but the most 
sterling integrity. 

Captain Jonas M. C. Savage. Has become disabled from his 
wounds received at Green Plains, Va., on May i8th, 1864, and is now 
an inmate of the Soldiers' Home at Hampton, Va. 

First Lieutenant David S. Harry. Died. 

George W. Wonderly. Died September loth, 1873. 

CO. c. 

First Lieutenant Emmor G. Griffith. Was elected Assessor 
and Collector for the borough of West Chester in 1S77, and served 
therein efficiently until elected Treasurer of Chester County in 1881. 
In these responsible positions he has performed the duties with 



fidelity and diligence, to the manifest advantage of both the borough 
and county. His term of office will expire with the present year. 

Sergeant Isaac A. Cleaver. Was elected a director of the 
Penn Mutual Insurance Company and has served with much ability. 
He is actively engaged in mercantile business at Berwyn, in East- 
town Township. He has been an active, enterprising citizen, ener- 
getic in the public welfare and its interests in his locality. He 
should become the successor in the State Legislature of his friend 
and neighbor, Captain William Wayne, the present member from 
that district. 

Corporal Davis O. Taylor. Has pursued his vocation as 
machinist at West Chester since his discharge from the service. He 
has just received the nomination of his party for the office of Clerk 
of the Courts of Chester County, which, in a district polling an 
average majority of 2,300, is equivalent to an election. That he will 
bring to the discharge of the duties of the office the requisite ability 
and faithfulness, his record of service will fully justify the prediction. 

William Agg. One of our badly wounded comrades. Received 
employment soon after the close of the war in the post-office 
department of Philadelphia. After some years of faithful service as 
a letter-carrier he was appointed to the charge of the sub-district of 
Kensington, where he continued to receive the confidence of the 
department until his death, which occurred after a short illness 
in 1883. 

Anthony Grimes. Died in Philadelphia about 1878. 

Levi Keeley. Died October 13th, 1864. 

Asher M. Kinnard. Died at West Chester, of typhoid pneu- 
monia, at 12 o'clock M., June 5th, 1883. 

Wesley McLain. Erroneously reported dead, is still living at 
Milton, Northumberland County, Pa. 

John L. Kitts. Received an appointment as paying teller in 
the National Bank of Delaware County, at which post he is still 
engaged. 

CO. D. 

Captain William S. Mendenhall. After the war settled in Wil- 
mington, and was engaged in the retail notion and trimming trade. 
His health failed, resulting in consumption, of which he died at 
that place. 

Sergeant William McCarty. Died. 

Corporal Wilbur F. Flannery. Died of consumption at Potts- 
town, Pa., January ist, 1879. 



23 
CO. E. 

Sergeant Patrick Carter. Died. 
John Bennett. Died March 25th, i<S74. 

Michael Walsh. Died of consumption at Concordville, May 
24th, 1878. 

CO. F. 

Second Lieutenant Oliver E. Strickland. Died at home since 
the war. 

Musician Thomas St. John. Died of consumption in Philadel- 
phia, February 19th, 1880. 

John Hall. Died. 

George W. Wolf Died in Philadelphia of consumption, 
November 4th, 1878. 

Davis McAfifee. Died July 12th, 1883, at his home in East 
Nantmeal, from the result of an operation necessitated by wounds 
received during the service. 

CO. G. 

John G. Herkins. Died of consumption, January, 1880. 
Thomas L. Hinkson. Died in Philadelphia, February 27th, 187S. 

CO. H. 

Captain George A. LeMaistre. Has been engaged for several 
years as managing engineer for Walton, Whann & Co., manufac- 
turers of phosphate — a most responsible position, requiring skill, 
accuracy and great care in the management of the details, to avoid the 
dangers attendant upon the chemical processes connected with the 
production and storage of large quantities of acids required in 
those works. 

First Lieutenant Thomas S. Taylor. Was engaged after the 
war as a teacher of penmanship, for which he was very well qualified. 
He died of consumption at West Chester, 1883. 

Sergeant Benjamin F. Smith. Died June 4th, 1872. 

Sergeant Thomas John. Died at West Chester. 

Corporal Isaac T. Massey. Died. Was killed by falling down 
stairs in Philadelphia on Christmas Day, 1878. 

Jonathan Cross. Died. 

Joseph Dasey. Died June 4th, 1872. 

Milton Jackson. Died March 26th, 1876. 

Edward H. Taylor. Died. 

CO. I. 

Second Lieutenant Annesley N. Morton. Died of pneumonia 
in Philadelphia, August 13th, 1880. 



24 
CO. K. 

Captain William Wayne. Was elected a member of the House 
of Representatives of Pennsylvania in 1880; was re-elected in 1882, 
and has just received renomination for a third term in that body. 
His services as a member of the House need no other commendation 
than this repeated manifestation of confidence on the part of his 
constituents. As soldier and as statesman alike in faithfulness to the 
•duties of the time, his presence with us here affords the opportunity 
to extend to him our hearty and united congratulations. 

Captain William S. Underwood. Was elected in 1878 to the 
office of Register of Wills for Chester County, which position he filled 
with the same ability, fidelity and care that marked his services in the 
field. He is now the manager of an important business enterprise 
in the borough of West Chester. 

Second Lieut. Marriott Brosius. Upon returning from the service 
entered Millersville State Normal School, from which he graduated. 
He was also a graduate of the Law Department of the University of 
Michigan. He afterwards studied law at Lancaster, Pa., with Hon. 
Thomas E. Franklin as his preceptor, and was admitted to practice 
at the Lancaster Bar in April, 1868. He has continued in the practice 
of his profession at Lancaster, with such diligence and careful atten- 
tion to business as have brought to him an enviable success. In 1882 
he was nominated by the Republican State Convention as Congress- 
man-at-Large, but shared the defeat of his party in that election. He 
is a most eloquent and interesting speaker, whether in the political can- 
vass or as a temperance advocate in its moral aspect, yet giving the 
cause the more practical advantage of his support of the party of 
progress, rather than follow the lead of merely theoretical and 
impracticable ideas of reform that tend to hinder and defeat the real 
purpose to be advanced. He has delivered many of the most 
interesting and eloquent Memorial Day addresses for the Grand 
Army of the Republic and other like ceremonies at various places ; 
and to him has been assigned the duty of delivering the address 
upon this day of our Reunion, and I know that you will all be 
gratified in hearing the expression of his thoughts which these 
reminiscences of our old army days will give him the inspiration to 
speak to our ears and to our hearts. 

Charles E. Raby. Died. 

After the above had been read it was ascertained that the 
minutes of the association and the constitution and by-laws prepared 



25 

for the action of this meeting had been inadvertently left at home by 
the secretary, who had gone to get them. This being stated by the 
president, on motion of Colonel Price, seconded by several com- 
rades, it was decided to have the oration before concluding the 
business meeting. Colonel Guss then introduced our comrade, 
Hon. Marriott Brosius, who came forward, and was received with 
great applause. He then spoke as follows : 

THE ORATION. 

A more delightful task has rarely fallen to my hands than that 
which the partiality of your committee has assigned to me in connec- 
tion with this Reunion; that of recalling some of the forgotten inci- 
dents, gathering up the fragrant recollections and patriotic reminis- 
cences of our military career, and with a promethean spark from the 
altar of fraternal devotion, kindle them into new life until, like a 
restored picture, they appear in fresh brightness on the canvas of 
our memories to point the morals and illustrate the lessons of our 
service and our sacrifice. 

The occasion, however, is not free from difficulty. Some of its 
aspects touch the heart in its tenderest part, and the mind is rather 
enfeebled than otherwise by the emotions which swell the breast, as 
the flood of affectionate remembrances and hallowed associations 
pour in ceaseless volume upon us, leaving little to the most earnest 
desire to discharge faithfully a delicate trust, but an acute sense of 
inability for the task. Still, we indulge the allurement of hope, that 
drawing inspiration from opportunity, we may be moved to some 
utterances that will tend to promote the reunion of this remnant of 
the old Regiment in the bonds of a firm and indissoluble friendship, 
and revive in our hearts the vestal flame of love for the memory of 
our comrades who suffered with us the parting, bore with us the 
burdens, won for us the victory, but came not back to share with us 
the glory. 

My loving comrades, as we looked into each other's eyes to-day 
and touched each other's warm palms in fraternal greeting, memory, 
the soul's cup-bearer, brought back to us with great vividness the 
affecting incidents of our departure in November, 1861, when with 
hearts luminous with patriotic fire, with eyes flashing with brightness, 
with steps firm and true to the drum's tap, with a carriage which 
betrayed the fine pride and sturdy vigor of the young manhood 
which composed our rank and file, we marched through the streets 
of the borough, thronged with citizens and friends pressing eagerly 



26 

to obtain a last embrace and a final farewell. Mothers with their 
cheeks suffused, and their faces manded with a sweet sadness through 
which like a gleam of sunlight through a rift in the clouds flashed 
the great courage of their souls as they gave their sons with a mo- 
ther's benediction to an imperilled country. Wives whose hearts 
were pierced by the unutterable grief of parting with those whose 
lives had been inseparably entwined with their own, stood like trem- 
bling vines from which the oak had been rudely torn, sustained by 
the unfaltering hope that a country saved would render back to the 
sweet embrace of love the dear offerings that day laid upon her altar. 
Sisters with their brows radiant with beauty, and their faces luminous 
with the glow of that divine sentiment which alone could make them 
capable of a deed so grand as when they bade their brothers with a 
God-speed to the scene of their duty, to brave the perils of the battle 
and the siege. Fathers whose hearts had been strengthened for the 
trial by the kindling fires of patriotism, stood grand and heroic 
as they consecrated with unbidden tears the gift of their boys to the 
cause of Union and liberty. And citizens in multitudes, all stirred 
alike by the awakening spirit of devotion which swept with electric 
touch, the heart-strings of a loyal people, greeted us with swaying 
hands, waving handkerchiefs and loud huzzas which culminated in 
enthusiastic shouts as the train bore us swiftly away. Who can con- 
template the agonizing solicitude of that day, the pain of those part- 
ings, the anguish of those aching hearts, and the desolation of those 
broken homes, without feeling the uplifting touch of the sublime 
heroism of those who gave their first-born, and the splendid valor 
of those who went out in the early morning of their lives, a conse- 
crated band, to keep watch at the gateway of the Union, as Gabriel 
and his band of holy angels kept their watch and walked the rounds 
of Paradise, willing if need be to gather into their own breasts the 
pittiless daggers of treason unsheathed for the nation's heart. 

The occasion which summoned us from our homes and com- 
manded our sacrifices will not lose its tragic interest while Americans 
enjoy the blessings, born to us out of the mighty scourge of civil war, 
which kindled the fires of death from Gettysburg to the Gulf It 
seems to be the lesson of the ages that every new birth of freedom 
must have its dark night of travail and pain. Every marked advance 
in civilization has been made through fields of carnage. It has been 
through the Thermopylaes and over the Marathons and Gettysburgs 
of the world's history that civil and political liberty have carved their 
way to ultimate triumph. So our war was one of those overruling 



27 

necessities in the providence of God in working- out the destiny of 
the RepubHc. It was not for conquest or spoils. It was no rash 
and fruitless war for wanton glory waged. It was the spontaneous 
uprising of patriotism to rescue union and liberty, to establish and 
maintain the supremacy of ideas that will wander through eternity, 
principles as inextinguishable as the stars, and a civilization as shin- 
ing as the sun. 

Liberty and slavery — irreconcilable in their nature — crossed the 
ocean the same year. The Mayflower and the Dutch slave ship 
ploughed the sea at the same time. Both sought the shores of the 
New World and both planted their seeds to grow side by side until 
the principle of the survival of the fittest should exterminate one and 
nationalize the other. Formidable events in the history of their con- 
flict put the nation to a formidable alternative — "the horrors of 
miasma or the fury of the blast." Said Victor Hugo : " For every oak 
struck by lightning, how many forests rendered wholesome." The 
storm came. Behind the visible work was the invisible, the lat- 
ter sublime as the former was barbarous. Under a scaffolding ot 
war was reared a majestic temple of human freedom. It was thus 
the character and magnitude of the undertaking which called us 
away, that signalized our departure as an event of no inconsiderable 
moment in the annals of Chester county. Then, too, many of the 
men who composed our Regiment were not those whom any com- 
munity could afford to lose. Hundreds of homes surrendered to the 
recruiting officer their brightest and best. Young men of the high- 
est character and most commanding talents abandoned the fields of 
employment for which they were conspicuously fitted by their su- 
perior character and intellectual equipment, and, turning their backs 
upon their dearly cherished hopes, took their places by the side 
of their comrades to swell the ranks of their country's defenders ; so 
that in the moral and intellectual character of its men, from the field 
to the rank and file, the Ninety-seventh had few superiors in the ser- 
vice ; and the people, not alone those who endured the heart pangs 
of separation and loss, but the whole community, instinctively felt a 
sense of impending calamity as they witnessed the departure of the 
flower of their young manhood. 

To adjust ourselves to our new relations and become as capable 
in our new field of operations as we had been efficient in the less ex- 
citing pursuits of peace was an undertaking whose difficulties the 
uninitiated cannot easily appreciate. A good soldier is a machine. 
He moves at the word of command, as the shuttle flies at the touch 



28 

of a spring. Intelligence and judgment as agencies in the direction 
of individual movement have little place in the principles and rules 
of military organization and discipline ; and a man who has been ac- 
customed to turning to the right or left, or advancing in a straight 
line at his own will, surrenders a large share of his personal liberty 
when he consents to go forward or turn aside at the command of 
another. One accustomed to express his opinion freely in season and 
out of season, with knowledge and without knowledge, makes a sad 
and melancholy sacrifice of his freedom of speech when he consents 
to hold his tongue except when permitted to speak. Some of us were 
dull scholars in this despotic school of military limitations upon hu- 
man rights, and sometimes embarrassments ensued upon an undue 
assertion of that deeply cherished right to speak our mind. Comrade 
Miles, of Company E, thought the propriety of holding Jacksonville 
was a question upon which every citizen and soldier as well, had a 
right to an opinion, and when preparations for evacuation were being 
made and he accidentally met General Wright, he saw no harm in 
remarking to him, " General, I thought you would have to 'vaceate' " 
and we can imagine his surprise when his temerity was rewarded by 
an order for an escort to conduct him to private quarters. But this 
surrender of individual liberty ; this complete subjection to the do- 
minion of arbitrary rule, was not a badge of degrading servitude, but 
a high and patriotic duty, and a part of the voluntary sacrifice the 
citizen made when he became a soldier. And hard as it was at times 
to brook this submission when our own judgment rose in hot revolt 
against a command, the reason for which was not discoverable, while 
its inutility and danger were apparent to all, yet no disobedience or 
even reluctance, to respond to the command of a superior ever im- 
paired the efficiency of the Ninety-seventh. Our fighting qualities 
were never at a discount, and we fairly earned the compliments ex- 
torted from casual observers of our steadfast courage and invincible 
prowess. It was an aid of one of the Generals who, witnessing our 
dauntless bravery and obstinate courage as we held the line under a 
tempest of fire at Foster's Place, on the i8th of May, '64, remarked, 
" The Ninety-seventh will hold that line for three weeks if they are 
supplied with ammunition." It reminds us of the brave Colonel 
George of a Minnesota regiment at the battle of Chickamauga, who 
promised still better. When an aid came with the inquiry as to how 
long his regiment could hold a certain pass, he sent back the heroic 
answer, " Till we are mustered out." So at the Darbytown road ; an 
officer who witnessed our splendid and successful charge said to 



29 

Colonel Pennypacker, " That's the d st regiment of yours to fight 

I ever saw ! " He was informed by the Colonel that it was the result 
of early training, but I think something was due to inherited quali- 
ties — courage in the blood, and it illustrated what every machinist 
knows, the better the material, the better the machine. But in dis- 
playing these high qualities of the soldier we were only being true 
to ourselves. Obedience, subordination, devotion and courage were 
all comprised in that first great self-imposed command, " Go ye and 
serve your country until Union and Liberty are rescued from the 
despoiler's hands." 

That our boys behaved so well may be due in part to the fact 
that for a long time they were under a mother's watchful eye. Boys 
will put their best foot foremost when mother is looking on. A 
noble woman, like the King's name in battle, is a mighty incentive. 
Mrs. Mary St. John (I would rather call her St. Mary John) exerted 
an elevating and beneficent influence upon all who came within her 
radiant ministry of kindness and helpfulness. She did not lead in 
battle like Joan of Arc, or command a fortress like Lady Banks, or 
fire the cannon like Molly Pitcher ; but she was behind us : 

" In danger, mind you, a woman behind you 
Can turn your blood to fire." 

The gentle sway of her womanly scepter, her self-sacrifice, 
devotion and tender care, followed the battle, like the sunshine the 
storm, alleviating pain, assuaging the distresses of sickness and 
smoothing the wrinkled brow of the soldier's life. O, woman ! 

" When pain and anguish wring the brow, 
A ministering angel thou." 

Mother St. John brought into the camp something of the 
influence of home. Gen. Sherman used to say that the home 
influences were of infinite assistance in the dicipline of the army. 
It was a benediction to any regiment to enjoy the presence and be 
subject to the dominion of a woman's influence, and so profoundly 
sensible are we of the value of her association with the regiment, so 
fragrant is our recollection of her tender and affectionate care, that I 
know I but voice the spontaneous emotion of every heart when I 
invoke blessings upon Mother St. John. May time deal with her 
gently, may the days of her years be lengthened out, and joy and 
happiness be the companions of her age. 

The services of the regiment during an exceptionally checkered 
career of good and bad fortune comprised every variety of experience 
possible to military life. We fought rebels and likewise malaria and 



30 

mosquitoes. We measured swords with the enemies of our country 
on many a well-contested field ; we wrestled manfully with the 
enemies of our constitutions in the form of southern fevers that 
walked in the darkness and stalked abroad at noonday : and we had 
many sanguinary encounters with the winged and venomous 
disturbers of our comfort and peace that marshalled their hosts in 
every swamp, assailed every out-post and invaded every camp on 
the southern coast with malign and ravenous intent to feast with 
rancorous rapture on the sweet and nourishing blood of the North. 
We were wood choppers on Sea Brook, lumbermen on the St. 
Mary's, dock builders at Port Royal, sappers on Morris Island, 
engineers on Hilton Head, and miners at Petersburg. Our reveille 
and tattoo sounded in every degree of latitude from Washington to 
St. Augustine. Our camp-fires blazed in every coast state from 
Maryland to Florida. Our victorious eagles were borne from 
Hampton Roads to Port Royal ; from Pulaski to Jacksonville ; from 
Fernandina to Morris' Island ; from the rice swamps of the Carolinas 
to the trenches of the Peninsula. Our wild hurrahs rang out and 
our avenging bayonets gleamed from the slopes of Wagner, Gregg 
and Fisher. We forced the gates of Wilmington, unfurled our 
battle-scarred flag in the streets of Goldsboro, and swinging to the 
capital of the State, we stood in its shadow, proud spectators of a 
glorious triumph, as the last army of the "Confederacy" laid its 
arms at the feet of Sherman's conquering legions, and the curtain 
fell before the tragedy of the rebellion. 

In contemplating the career of our regiment, we cannot over- 
look the melancholy shadows which form the sombre background 
for the more cheerful and exhilarating incidents of our diversified 
experience. We cannot look into each others' eyes to-day without 
being reminded of our unreturning comrades who are bivouacked 
under eternal skies on the plains beyond the river. It was a solemn 
hour when we stood beside our first grave and endured the pangs 
of our first grief Every family has its first death ; we had ours 
when comrade Stevens, of Co. F., in January, 1862, closed his loyal 
service to his country and was mustered out. He but led the way, 
for our death roll was long and illustrious. The noble and gifted 
Hambleton ; the gentle and studious Gardner; the sturdy and 
faithful Taylor; the vigorous and manly Brinton : the brave and 
impetuous Hawkins ; the brilliant and daring Carruthers, and the 
young and gallant Morton, but represent the harvest of death 
gathered from our line, and rank and file, and suggest the splendid 



31 

aggregate of purity, patriotism, intellect, devotion and all the high 
qualities of manhood that swelled the sacrifice which the Ninety- 
seventh laid upon our country's bleeding altar. 

How can we filly honor the memory of our valiant dead ? Let 
us dwell for a moment upon their patriotic services and meritorious 
death. I have great faith in the influence upon the living of the 
remembrances of the heroic dead. It was such an influence that 
led a young Greek two thousand years ago, when walking over the 
fields on which a Grecian warrior won his victories, to exclaim : "the 
trophies of Miltiades will not let me sleep." So with the contem- 
plation of the sacrifices and splendid courage of our departed 
comrades, may come an incantation that will conjure spirits of high 
patriotism round about us, until like Hector's son we catch heroic 
fire from the memory of the tried fidelity and steadfast devotion of 
our fallen braves. 

Vain are the eulogies of the living upon the noble men whom 
the tide of battle and its allied destroyer, fell disease, swept to the 
skies from camp and field. They were soldiers in the most exalted 
sense. Their helmets were of faith, their breastplates were of 
courage, their swords were of justice. They entered the war in 
something of the spirit of Gustavus of Sweden, at Lutzen, when 
spurning his corselets he exclaimed " God is my harness." Our boys 
went into battle inspired with all the heroism of the Revolution. 
They marched into the fight with Wayne and all the heroes of 
Brandy wine, Paoli and Valley Forge, in the air above them. The 
typical bravery of the Union soldier was well exemplified by an 
incident told of Gen. Dan McCook. He was storming the heights 
of Kenesaw Mountain at the head of his troops. The summit 
was crowded with rebel soldiers ; the ascent was precipitous ; the 
troops had to lift themselves up by the bushes and branches of the 
trees; he knew it was certain death. In a momentary pause in the 
ascent he was heard to repeat, in calm, clear tones, these lines from 
Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome : 

" Then out spoke brave Horatius, the captain of the gate. 
To every man upon this earth death conieth soon or late, 
And how can man die better than by facing fearful odds 
For the ashes of his fathers and the temples of his gods ? 

A moment afterwards he rushed up the heights, and in two 
minutes fell dead " for the ashes of his fathers and the temples of 
his gods." The same spirit animated and inspired our men in many 
a perilous encounter. On Morris Island, the night of Wagner's 



32 

evacuation, when our line was formed for the advance, the glittering 
sentinels of heaven — the watching stars — witnessing our impatience 
for the assault, our dauntless Major, whose breast was glowing with 
the foreshining of the glory of the anticipated achievement, address- 
ing the regiment, said : " Men, remember your duty to God and 
your country to-night." The thrilling words went down the line 
like an electric pulse, touching off a magazine of heroic daring in 
every heart, in the blaze of which every man would have scaled the 
walls of Wagner, pikes, lances and all, or found a grave in the 
attempt. There are times when the soldier seems transformed ; swept 
on by the wings of the tempest of excitement ; riding on the billows 
of impetuous heroism ; insensible to danger, knowing no fear, he is 
more than man. We have seen our boys marching into the jaws of 
death with as firm and steady a step as they would pursue the common- 
est paths of life. At Green Plains they charged against a hurricane of 
fire before which none but lines of adamant could stand. O, mortal 
powers, what courage ! How like gods they moved, yet how like 
men they fell, these citizen soldiers, many of whom but the week 
before had left their kisses on the lips of mothers, wives and sisters 
in exchange for their benedictions, as they rushed to their baptism 
of fire! But how could they die better? Near the beginning of the 
century a great battle was fought on the plains of the Danube, 
resulting in a victory for France. The courage of a private soldier 
contributed to the triumph, and ever after, at the parades of the 
battalion, the name of Latour D'Vergne was first called, when the 
eldest sergeant stepped to the front and answered, " died on the field 
of honor." So in Walhalla, the paradise of battle-scarred warriors, 
when on the roll of heroes the names of our martyred comrades are 
called, a chorus of dauntless spirits will reverberate along the 
celestial corridors as the highest eulogy is pronounced, " died on 
the field of duty." To their character our praise can add nothing; 
not to their valor, for that is immortal; not to their patriotism, for 
that is in the Recording Angel's book ; not to their sublime 
endurance, for that is embalmed in history's page. Helpless to add 
a single fiower to the immortal wreathes that must forever crown 
their immortal deeds, we can but resign them to their rest with the 
prayer of Chester County's sweet poet on the field of Gettysburg : 

" Take tliem, O, Fatherland, 
Who, dying, conquered in Thy name ! 
Take them, O, God, our brave, 
The glad fulfihnent of Thy dread decree! 
Who grasped the sword for peace, and smote to save, 
And dying here for freedom, died for Thee." 



33 

Thus have our dead completed their task; but ours, my 
comrades, remains unfinished. The nation's martyrs left as a legacy 
to their surviving countrymen the best government ever devised by 
human wisdom for the happiness of mankind, and as we recall their 
sacrifices that government of the people, by the people and for the 
people might not perish from the earth, is it irreverent to believe 
that our dead, who from camp and field went up to God in the 
shadow of our flag and who still love their country, are assembled 
with us to-day in their viewless forms, and with their celestial voices 
are dedicating their surviving comrades to the holy ministry of 
preserving for all coming time what they died to save. This is our 
unfinished task. Let us for a moment consider the commanding 
duties it lays upon us. 

" The walls of my city," said an ancient ruler, " are the hearts 
of my people." So the surest defences of this Republic are the 
hearts of its citizens, when imbued with an intelligent sense of the 
responsibilities and a loyal devotion to the obligations of citizenship. 
If there is one overruling necessity, one fundamentally essential 
factor in the true solution of the problem of our destiny, it is a 
standard of moral independence, political integrity, obedience and 
loyalty, that will guarantee a citizenship at once independent, 
incorruptible, obedient to law and loyal to the public weal. So this 
Republic with a voice of solemn supplication, emphasized by the 
sacrifices of the past, summons the manhood on which it leans to- 
day to lift itself up to the true stature of American citizenship. 

Without a vigorous, noble and true manhood, though our 
empire reach from sea to sea, we are a rope of sand. The French 
king was not wholly wrong when he said " I am the State." He was 
part of it. Not one man, but all men, are the State. 

" Not high raised battlements or labored mounds, thick wall nor moated 

gate. 
Nor cities proud with spires and turrets crowned, nor starred and spangled 

courts, 
Where low-born baseness wafts perfume to pride, but men, high-minded 

men, 
Who their duties know, but know their rights and knowing, dare 

maintain." 

Seek ye, then, first intelligence, virtue, honor, independence 
and loyalty to principle in the citizen, and all the blessings of good 
government will be added unto you. Fidelity to conviction, devotion 
to duty, loyalty to conscience and country, are the qualities which 
moulded the men who honored American citizenship and adorned 

(3) 



34 

the public service in the past, and it is a hope in aid of whose 
reahzation all the graves filled by our civil war implore the living, 
that the influence of American civilization and the inspiration of 
American progress may produce for Columbia's future citizens a 
race of men who, " being admirable in form, noble in reason, infinite 
in faculty," will add thereto integrity of soul — a mighty priesthood 
of truth, who will barter not their honor at the public marts, stock 
boards, election polls or in halls of legislation, but will stand with 
manly firmness against all the blandishments of power and the 
seductions of ambition and gold, as integrity incarnate. 

The infirmities common to forms of government in which 
sovereignty resides in the people and speaks through popular 
elections have their roots in individual delinquency and personal 
venality. The seeds of political degeneracy lurk in that condition 
of personal character which makes it possible for men to violate the 
plainest requirements of morality to advance a political end. It is a 
low standard of character, an enfeebled moral sense, insensibility to 
the stain of dishonor in the voter, that nurtures the poisonous tree 
of political evil and hurries it on to its tainted bloom and deadly 
fruitage. 

In the breast of the voter is the virus that taints the blood of 
our political life, and the decay of character is the unerring prelude 
to degeneracy in our political institutions. 

" III fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay." 

The evils sometimes betrayed in political administration, the 
corruption which the tumultuous heaving of popular elections 
sometimes throws to the surface, are but the hectic flush on the cheek 
of the body politic which betrays the existence of the subtle poison 
of moral decay, consuming its life. We are without hope of 
preserving the lofty character which the splendor of our history has 
won for us unless we can keep upright the hearts of our people and 
pure the homes of the land, thereby maintaining a perennial supply 
of high-minded men who, like our martyred Lincoln, can be states- 
men without craftiness, and politicians without intrigue, who can 
subject their political conduct to the restraints of moral principle, 
and subordinate their private interests to their public duties ; whose 
chastity of honor and sensibility of principle make them feel the 
sense of delinquency or the stain of dishonor as a wound, and who, 
like the virtuous Andrew Fletcher, would give their lives to serve 
their country, but would not do a base thing to save it. 



35 

The people are the source of authority, the fountain of power, 
the keepers of the RepubHc's jewels. Whatever measure of virtue, 
self-restraint, patriotism and honor shall exalt them, in that same 
measure will their collective action feel the uplifting touch. As they 
shall think, and feel, and act, so shall be formed and directed the 
mightiest engine of power the world has ever known, whose 
mandates kings and potentates obey, and at whose touch govern- 
ments are dismantled and dynasties dissolved, the sovereign of all 
earthly powers — public sentiment — an exalted assemblage, it has 
been said, which without visible session, ever legislates, and without 
army or navy, marshal or constable, ever executes its decrees. 
Remove the atmosphere from the earth, said a philosopher, and all 
the water would fly into vapor. Public sentiment is the atmosphere 
of society, without which our institutions would fly into chaos ; and 
unless that atmosphere is pure and wholesome the body politic can- 
not be healthy. The vicious sentiments and depraved morals of the 
individual diffuse themselves and impair the tone of the social and 
political atmosphere, as the polluted breath of the sot taints the air 
around him. This all-encasing air, the very breath of life to our 
political existence, must be kept from pollution if we hope to preserve 
our free institutions from decay and ultimate dissolution. 

A nation of fifty millions cannot be saved by the virtuous rem- 
nant, but the infirmities of the majority must be healed. Moral health 
must inhabit, and political soundness invigorate the whole body ; for 
Matthew Arnold is right, as Plato and the prophets were right before 
him, that where the majority are bad, the minority cannot lead to 
the promised land, but the supremacy of the true, the just, the pure 
and elevated will as certainly redeem and save the nation, as the do- 
minion of their opposites, by an inexorable fatality, will destroy it. 

That which righteousness exalts, sin destroys. What virtue, 
honor, loyalty and loving duty adorn and strengthen, vice, neglect, 
intrigue and profligacy enfeeble and despoil. Indifference, selfish- 
ness, venality and every insidious device to obstruct the sovereign 
will are as fatal as the breath of the sirocco to the fair gardens of our 
political heritage. The (ew can carry wrong results, promote vicious 
policies, advance dangerous principles and elevate corrupt men, only 
when the many sleep upon their rights. Demagogues are powerless 
to harm when the people are vigilant to save. But if the voters give 
themselves up to indolent indifference to the results of the primary 
organization of political power, and suffer the collective action to be 
moulded and declared by the least qualified in intelligence, principle 



36 

and probity ; if they are content to abandon the sources of poHtical 
action to the venal, the stupid and the servile, it becomes as certain 
as the fiat of omnipotence that the country will express and obey the 
baser will, the supremacy of patriotism and public reason be over- 
thrown, while faction, ambition, selfishness and corruption will sit 
regnant in the seat of power. 

Hence it is, to be false to the cardinal virtues which enter into 
the structure of a man, adorning and strengthening his character ; a 
conscious rectitude which inspires him with self-respect and gives 
him the courage, consequence and stateliness born of self-regard ; an 
intelligence and patriotism, which qualify him to judge, stimulate his 
exertions, and hold him in steadfast loyalty to his country's needs ; 
and an independence which enables him to stand four square to all 
the winds that blow ; to be recreant to these conspicuous attributes 
of a good citizen is disloyalty to the memory of our martyred com- 
rades and treason to the Republic. Shall it be in vain, then, that we 
plead for the elevation of the citizen — for a vigorous and virtuous 
manhood — for high-minded and true-hearted men who alone can 
save this country from a disappointed hope and a blighted destiny ? 
The glory of the Republic is her manhood, and when that becomes 
debased, the sand in the hour-glass of her history will begin to run. 
And I desire to add, my comrades, that if the time shall come when 
the Republic, which we devoutly pray the God of nations may pre- 
serve to be the Union soldiers' temple of fame, falls a victim to maladies 
engendered in the bosom of our political system, when corruption 
shall have eaten away the cable that holds us to the moorings of vir- 
tue ; "when the nation shall totter to its fall, its glory extinct, the 
banner of its pride trampled in the dust, its nationality and grandeur 
a moral of history," when the unfriendly prophecy of a hundred 
years ago shall be fulfilled, and a few lean and half naked fishermen 
are dividing with owls and foxes the ruins of our great cities, wash- 
ing their nets amid the relics of our gigantic docks and building their 
huts out of the capitals of our stately edifices, let not this work of 
ruin be traced to those who wore the Union blue. We are a conse- 
crated band. It was at the battle of Chickamauga, just after a vig- 
orous assault of the enemy had been gallantly repulsed at the point 
of the bayonet that the great- hearted commander, George H. Thomas, 
took the hand of a private soldier and thanked him for his cour- 
age. The soldier stood silent a moment, and then said with emo- 
tion : " George H. Thomas has taken this hand in his ; I'll knock 
down any mean man that offers to take it hereafter." He felt that 



37 

something had consecrated his hand, making it too sacred for vulgar 
touch. Comrades, something has consecrated every surviving soldier 
of the Union. No man that drew a sword or carried a musket in that 
holy war, or bore our battle-stained banner on any one of the glo- 
rious fields on which the Union arms won imperishable renown, 
but is solemnly dedicated to the service of patriotism, honor, loyalty 
and virtue, to the end that the soldiery that once saved the nation by 
fire and sword may save it yet again by the example of their fidelity 
to the principles and institutions of the government. 

After Appomattox General Lee made the great speech of his 
life, when he said to his vanquished army, " Soldiers ! we have done 
our duty, as we knew it, now let us go home and be good citizens." 

A greater than Lee, the nation's silent chieftain also spoke, and 
his utterance will not soon die — " Let us have peace !" One is the 
fruit of the other, and the prayer of the Republic to-day is that we 
be good citizens and enjoy the blessings of peace and concord. From 
the hearts of patriots everywhere, attuned to the same melody, is 
lifted up the glad refrain ; celestial choirs prolong the joyful chorus 
until the spirits of our martyred dead send back the swelling anthem, 
" Let us be good citizens," — " Let us have peace." 

The maintenance of this lofty standard of personal character and 
exalted patriotism in the citizen ; the enthronement in our public life 
of unselfish loyalty and disinterested devotion to duty, and the es- 
tablishment of the dominion of incorruptible integrity and stainless 
honor as the predominant spirit in the public service of the country 
is the elevated task to which patriotism dedicates American citizen- 
ship. My Comrades ! do we realize the responsibility of the task 
imposed ? Are we equal to this supreme demand ? Are we fit for 
this exalted service ? These are the questions which the sphinx of 
national destiny puts to us, on the inexorable condition of death if not 
correctly answered. But if the patriotism of the American people, 
putting under its feet sectional animosity, partisan bitterness, fac- 
tious dissension, personal and political profligacy, selfishness and all 
uncharitableness, shall bear back to us on unflagging wing the ans- 
wer yea ! yea ! then will the American Republic stand a monument 
to the memory of the heroic sacrifices of its citizens, when the pyra- 
mids are not, and Karnak is forgotten. 

Comrades, I have indulged these reflections because they point 
the way to the honorable completion of our yet unfinished task ; be- 
cause I feel the elevating influence of these high ideals ; because I 
believe there are spirit hands reaching down to-day to clasp ours of 



38 

flesh in token of continued fellowship in the promotion of that purity 
of life and elevation of character which alone can qualify the nation 
for the splendid career and exalted destiny that await it. 

Animated by these views and inspired by these hopes, Ameri- 
cans can hold fast their faith that the young Republic of the West, 
moving in queenly majesty in the procession of the nations ; proudly 
eminent; guided by principles which follow in the wake of Christi- 
anity as verdure follows the path of the sun ; freighted with the gold- 
en triumphs of the past; the heir of all the ages, and led by faith in 
an immortal destiny as by a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by 
night, will continue her march down the centuries, plucking new 
laurels and winning new victories for man and government, until 
ripe with years and with a completed destiny she lays the finished 
crown of her glory at the feet of Jehovah, at the jubilee of eternity. 



During the entire delivery of the address the most perfect 
attention was given by the men, standing in solid mass around the 
platform before the speaker, whose eloquence and impressive words 
imparted their influence upon all. Applause was frequently given 
to some of the stirring sentiments. At the conclusion most hearty 
cheers were given the orator. 

Sergeant Isaac A. Cleaver moved a vote of thanks for the able, 
interesting and eloquent address of Comrade Brosius, which no 
words of ours could adequately convey, save by the feeling within 
our hearts which responded to its eloquent utterances. The motion 
was seconded by Captain George A. Lemaistre, Co. H, and Colonel 
John Wainwright, and was passed unanimously by the voice of 
every comrade present in response. 

David M. Taylor of Co. A then presented the following reso- 
lutions : 

Whereas, The expense incurred by Colonel Price in publishing 
the History of the Ninety-seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Volun- 
teers, still exceeds by $300 the amount yet realized from the sale of 
books ; and 

Whereas, It seems right and proper that the author of this 
valuable historic record of the members and the services of the 
Regiment should be relieved of this indebtedness ; therefore 

Resolved, That we, the surviving members, assembled at the 
Reunion of the Regiment this 29th day of October, 1884, hereby 
authorize and direct the treasurer of our association to pay over to 



39 

Brevet-Cr ,nel Isaiah Price $300, and receive therefor sixty copies 
of the H,. lOry. 

Resolved, That the president shall appoint a committee of five, 
whose duty shall be to take charge of said Histories and sell the 
same as opportunity may offer, the proceeds accruing therefrom to 
be paid into the treasury at the annual meeting. Said committee to 
have full discretionary power to present copies to worthy members 
and the families of deceased members who are unable to jjurchase 
them. 

Before the question upon the resolutions was taken Colonel 
Price said, he desired to say that this action was a surprise to him, 
and entirely without his concurrence ; that he only asked of the 
members of the Regiment such individual subscriptions as might be 
desired by them. But if the association intended to procure the 
number of books named in the resolutions, he could only say the 
books were on hand. 

Sergeant Cleaver then stated that while in feeling he had the 
most hearty concurrence in the object of the resolutions to reimburse 
Colonel Price for the unliquidated balance of cost for publishing the 
History, it was necessary for the members of the association to 
know that, if these resolutions were passed, there was not sufficient 
funds in the treasury to meet the amount named, and it was a 
question yet undemonstrated whether the association would be in a 
condition to meet such an order as at present constituted, and referred 
to the general expenses for this Reunion, which would perhaps 
exhaust the treasury of its present provision for funds. 

Colonel Price then asked that the mover of the resolutions 
should consent to withdraw them, which, after some further 
remarks by Comrade Taylor and others, was done by him. 

The secretary, Major L. R. Thomas, having now returned with 
the minutes and other papers, they were read by him as presented 
in the foregoing account of the meeting of May 3d. 

On motion the minutes were adopted as read. 

The chairman, Colonel Guss, then stated the first business in 
order to be an election of officers to serve for the coming year. 

On motion of Marriott Brosius, Esq., the present officers were 
re-elected for another year. 

As the chairman, upon whom, in accordance with the by-laws, 
the duty devolved of calling the association together, desired to 
have some expression from the comrades present as to their wishes 
in the matter, the question of how often it was best to have future 
Reunions of the association was then taken up. Various sugges- 



40 

tions were made by different comrades as to time, varying from one 
to five years. 

Captain W. James, Co. G, moved that the Reunions be annually. 

D. M. Taylor, Co. A, favored less frequent meetings, on account 
of many having to come from long distances and at considerable 
expense. 

Sergeant Cleaver also referred to the difficulties attending these 
gatherings, many of the comrades not being in such financial con- 
dition as to bear the expense. 

Dr. Worrall, Co. B, was urgent in the support of an annual 
Reunion. He said we were growing older each year, and Colonel 
Guss.was not the only white head here to-day, and our numbers are 
growing less every year. Five years is a long time, and some of us 
may not be living to assemble at the next if it be so long deferred. 
Let us meet together each year and touch elbows again as of yore, and 
enjoy our life while we live in reviving these old memories, and let our 
association keep us warmly united in feeling and interest. We can 
all afford to come together one day in each year and be boys again, 
and renew our soldier life, as now we are inspired by mingling in 
social intercourse with each other. 

Several motions were suggested, proposing two, three and five 
years. But the question upon the motion of Captain James being 
seconded, was first taken up, and decided in the affirmative almost 
unanimously. 

The date for holding the meeting being now the subject for 
consideration, the 2gth of October was first mentioned by Colonel 
Guss as one as appropriate as any in consequence of its being the 
time of our organization, but as the weather was liable to be cold, 
and perhaps stormy, it might be well to fix upon an earlier day. 

Colonel Price suggested the nth of September, as that was 
about the time of the first occupation of Camp Wayne ; or the 22d 
of August, the date of the muster-in of Co. A, the first company of 
the Regiment organized. After considerable expressions by Com- 
rades Brosius, Cleaver, Captain James, Dr. Worrall, Colonel Guss, 
Colonel Lewis, D. M. Taylor, Co. A, Sergeant McBride, Co. D, 
Sergeant Kent, Co. C, and others, on motion of Sergeant Cleaver it 
was decided to hold the next Reunion on the third Wednesday in 
August, and in West Chester as the most available and central 
place for these occasions. 

Colonel Guss then declared the business meeting closed, and 



41 

asked the comrades to get their dinner tickets and meet in the hall 
for the banquet. 

Before separating- Colonel Price announced that Mr. Marshall, 
photographer of West Chester, was in readiness on the ground to 
take a photographic group of the Regiment, and asked the com- 
rades to take position before the camera on the right of the stand. 
With ready promptness of movement the entire body of men stood 
side by side in solid mass before the camera, as, in times gone by, 
they had stood shoulder to shoulder under arms, looking into the 
cannon's mouth unquailingly at Wagner, Gregg and Sumter ; 
before Petersburg and Richmond ; at Cold Harbor, at Fort Har- 
rison, at Fort Fisher and the gates of Wilmington. With these 
experiences engraven upon their bronzed faces, they could calmly 
look into the milder mouth of the camera about to be opened upon 
their defenseless faces without fear of the consequences. At such a 
moment Mr. Marshall could not have found a more fitting and 
appropriate suggestion than that he made, " Perhaps you had better 
take oft" your hats." Little could he know the instant feeling of 
every soldier there of the suggestive contrast conveyed by his words. 
To lis it brought back again the cry of the " Lookout ! " " Wagner, 
cover!" "Johnson, cover!" when with bated breath we awaited 
the result of the impending " whang bang " of the shell as it 
exploded over our devoted heads. 

Two seconds sufficed for the first shot from the camera, when 
Mr. Marshall requested a few minutes to prepare for a second 
assault, which was as unflinchingly faced. 

Then the word of command was given to move upon the works 
within the Exhibition Hall. The charge was short, sharp and 
decisive, and the citadel occupied by the voracious invaders within 
less time than it takes to recite the particulars. 

The tables, ten or twelve in number, were found to be well pro- 
vided with all that the hunger, or the fastidious taste, could desire, 
showing that the committee in charge of this most important part of 
the arrangements well understood the requirements of the situation ; 
for had they not with them all the experience of the importance of 
the Commissary and Quartermaster Departments being placed in 
capable and competent hands ? And with this knowledge of a 
soldier's expectations they were sure to have the rations well up to 
the front when the halt was called, and the camp kettles were to be 
rattled out of the baggage trains ready for instant service. 

The committee of arrangements had decorated the building in 



42 

most admirable taste with a profusion of bunting that called forth 
the admiration of all, and the presence of the old emblems of our 
service stirred the patriotic heart of every veteran present. 

When all had taken their places at the tables, the central one 
being occupied by Colonel Guss at the head, with Mother St. John 
and her daughter on his right; with the orator of the day, Lieu- 
tenant Brosius, Colonels Wainwright and Price and Captain Wayne 
on his left, and opposite to him our veteran Chaplain, whose first 
experience of leading the religious services in camp was in front of 
Petersburg, at brigade headquarters, the Sunday after his arrival at 
the front, when in the midst of the prayer a shell from the rebel 
batteries broke just overhead and scattered its fragments in the 
midst of the congregation, and wounded a man at his side. 
Undismayed by what might well make an old soldier seek cover, he 
stuck it out and finished the invocation, no doubt feeling in his heart 
he was seeking the best refuge for man in any emergency. So we 
may say " our veteran Chaplain," was then called upon by Colonel 
Guss to ask the Divine blessing upon our repast, which he did in a 
few well-chosen words. 

The following programme and bill of fare, prepared by the com- 
mittee, had been circulated among the comrades previous to the 

meeting : 

REUNION 

OF 

NINETY-SEVENTH REGIMENT, P. V., 

West Chester, Pa., 

Wednesday, October 29th, 1884. 



Order of Exercises. 

Meet at Fair Grounds, II A. M. 

Business Meeting, li A. M.to 12 M. 

Oration (comrade Marriott Brosius). 12 A. M. 

Dinner, 1.30 P. M. 

Bill of Fare. 

ROASTS. 

Beef. Lamb. Turkey. 

Bread. Rolls. < Butter. 

Chicken Salad. Oysters on Shell. 

Cranberry Sauce. Celery. 

Chowchow. Mixed Pickles. 

Spanish Olives. Worcestershire Sauce. Mustard. 

Coffee. 

FRUITS. 

Apples. Grapes. Bananas. 

ICE CREAM. 

Vanilla. Chocolate. 

Mixed Cakes. 



43 

Then the replenishment of the inner man was commenced, in 
order that " the feast of reason and flow of soul " might receive the 
fuller inspiration of the thankful hearts thus gathered together here 
once more in cordial and fraternal association, partaking joyously 
again of the bountiful gifts provided for the sustenance of life and 
for the growth of our common natures into even more and more 
perfect harmoniousness of intercourse in all the varied relations 
of life. 

What other class of our people could have a higher or better 
appreciation of such a meeting as this between the comrades of the 
war thus gathered to perpetuate the memories of their toils and 
sacrifices encountered in the line of duty which caused the loss of 
so many lives of our comrades whom we sadly miss at a time 
like this, when we realize so keenly the vacant place at our side 
once filled by loved comrades whose last answer to the roll-call was 
long ago, just before the battles at Foster's, Green Plains, Fort 
Fisher, Drury's Bluff, or others that we remember as these ? 

During the repast, Wilson's Orchestra discoursed most excel- 
lent music, which enlivened the spirits of all as they partook of the 
viands set before them. 

When at length the siege of the tables had resulted in the 
demolition of the more than abundant supplies provided, and the 
sense of renewed content of body and mind began to be manifest, 
the president, Colonel H. R. Guss, rapped for order, and called 
attention to the next business as arranged upon the programme by 
the committee, which was the regular toasts prepared for this occa- 
sion. The reading of these was then proceeded with in the follow- 
ing order : 

FIRST REGULAR TOAST. 

" The Citizen Soldier. When baptized in the fire of battle 
became the Veteran." 

" Corporal Casey, can't you be aisy ? 
Your gun is on my foot. 
If you can't ground arms without such harms 
You shall be the captain's cook." 

Colonel D. W. C. Lewis was named for this toast, and responded 
as follows : 

The citizen soldier ! Name honored by sage and poet ! Let 
memory carry you back to the winter of '60 and '61, when we were 
all engaged in pursuits of peace and industry — the farmer at his 
plow, the mechanic in his shop, the merchant at his business and the 



44 

student at his studies — without a thought of what was to follow in 
the near future. The muttering and threats of treason began to be 
heard in the North, borne by every breeze that came from the sunny 
South. As insult after insult was hurled by traitors, at the govern- 
ment and the flag of our country, our blood began to boil, and we 
listened with bated breath and waited patiently for the time to come 
when we could strike under the laws, for the laws and by the laws 
for our country and its laws. 

That time soon came. On the 15th of April, 1861, there came 
flashing over the wires the news of the firing upon and capture of 
Fort Sumter, followed by a call from that prince of Presidents, 
Abraham Lincoln, for seventy-five thousand men to help him enforce 
the law that bore so lightly on all. You all remember how that call 
was obeyed. In less than twenty- four hours the men who, up to 
that time, had been engaged in pursuits of peace and industry, 
responded in more than thrice the number of the call, transformed 
and enrolled as citizen soldiers, sworn to defend and, if need be, die 
in defence of their country. 

How were these obligations kept ? Consult history and see 

what the citizen soldiers have undergone in defence of their country 

and for the purpose of perpetuating their love of liberty and free 

thought. Their graves mark hillside and valley from Maine to 

Mexico, from Atlantic's shore to Rocky Mountain slope. Their 

wounded and suffering ones are in your midst. The people should 

not forget them — they whose whitened heads show that they are 

blossoming for the grave. But remember that they are but a part 

of the grand army of citizen soldiers who gave their all to save the 

Republic. 

You all remember Sixty-one, 

When crime and treason had begim 

To agitate our happy land. 

With one accord a patriot band, 

For freedom's defence, both good and grand. 

With trust in powder, faith in God, 

They were at best an awkward squad. 

But years roll by. This squad you find 

On battle front and picket line, 

'Mid bristling bayonet, shot and shell, 

Sulphurous smoke and fumes of hell. 

Union cheers and rebel yell. 

Where they by scores and hundreds fell 

In the great, grand cause 

For freedom, country and the laws. 

Quick to avenge, would no insult brook. 

Felt it no disgrace " to be captain's cook." 



45 

SECOND REGULAR TOAST. 

" Woman ! Without her the world would be empty, fruitless." 
" Men are what women make them ; age and youth 
Bear witness to that grand eternal truth ; 
They steer the bark o'er destiny's dark wave, 
And guide us from the cradle to the grave." 

To this toast Colonel Isaiah Price was called upon to answer. 

My Conrades : I regard it an especial honor to have been 
invited to respond to this toast upon the occasion of this Reunion, 
here in this familiar place, which we all remember so well. For here 
it was that our first experiences of a soldier's life and duty were 
begun, ere yet the separation from our homes and loved ones had 
sharpened into the keenness of our later sense of the privations, the 
toils, the dangers and those sterner realities of war so soon to be 
encountered, which were then so dimly perceived, so little realized, 
amid the busy stir and throng of preparation that preceded our 
going forth. 

Perhaps this unconsciousness of what was to be experienced 
was mainly due to the presence here in our first camp, of those best 
helpmates of life in every emergency, the devoted mothers, wives, 
sisters and daughters, who — thrusting back the agony and the tears 
that gnawed within their hearts and dimmed their eyes through the 
torturing fears born of their love for sons, husbands, brothers and 
fathers going forth to battle — gathered about us here in those days 
of solemn preparation, and sought to nerve our hearts to fortitude 
and duty through the ministration of their hands, bringing the pro- 
fusion of supplies for our comfort in camp and field ; seeking through 
every tender influence of loving interest to beguile the pangs of 
parting ; enforcing the smiles that could not quite conceal the traces 
of the deeper anguish of heart, that must be hushed with more than 
Spartan effort as the hour of our departure drew nigh. 

Ah ! those were truly deserving of being counted " heroic 
women " who, twenty-three years ago this October day, illustrated 
anew the noblest, truest womanhood for the age in which they lived. 

We read of " Spartan mothers " who bade their sons go forth 
in the defence of their country in the hour of danger, and who held 
up their babes to behold the departure of their fathers to do battle 
for their homes. 

History has immortalized the women of Greece who devoted 
themselves to the rescue of their country from the grasp of the 
invader. Veturia and Volumnia are remembered for their devotion 



46 

and self-sacrifice that saved Rome from the vengeance of their ban- 
ished son and husband. 

The name of Joan of Arc will enkindle the flame of patriotic 
enthusiasm so long as time shall continue to preserve the record of 
her daring deeds, that inspired the valor of her countrymen to 
follow her to victory, battling for the right. 

Ever)' age has had its illustrious women, who typify all that is 
good and great and worthy of imitation — grand, noble characters, 
who have continually demonstrated the capability of woman for 
bearing her share of the responsibilities of her generation. 

Foremost among those of her time was that " noble example of 
womanhood," Lucretia Mott, whose life was beautified by her works 
of love for humanity and peace ; who yet could perceive " the sense 
of duty " actuating those who conscientiously responded to the call 
of their country in her hour of danger and trial, for was it not in 
consequence of the unfaithfulness of those upon whom the respon- 
sibility rested of resisting in the councils of the nation, the encroach- 
ments of the slave power toward the domination of all its interests 
and powers that led to secession and war ? And she could recognize 
the righteous retribution that entailed the stern duty of the defence 
of the government in the interest of liberty and peace, on the part 
of those who had not yet reached her own standpoint of dependence 
upon the righteous judgments of God in all things. 

Recognizing in woman the abilities and the qualities that have 
shown her to be in possibilities, the co-equal with man in all the 
interests and experiences of life, yet is she still denied the place she 
should occupy— equality of representation before the law and in the 
race of life with man. An equality that shall include " the twain, 
united as one flesh," neither a complete or finished being when 
divided in interest or feeling from the unit that computes our 
common humanity. 

Will any one in this audience seriously question the statement 
which I shall venture to present, as the sum of all the experiences 
which belong unto the survivors of a war that desolated the nation 
for more than four years, who — returning from the scenes of strife, 
left behind us more than four hundred thousand of our comrades 
who died for their country, and having with us our maimed and 
crippled fellow-soldiers, who are yet scattered up and down in the 
land — remain to be the only competent witnesses capable of making 
a true estimate which living men may venture to make. Surely ive 
may be justified if we should realize that no other age or conflict 



47 

presented in history, can exhibit so vivid and terrible a picture of 
suffering, of toil and of patient endurance that could preserve the 
faith and hold fast unto hope through more than four years of 
weary, devastating war, attended by privations that might well appall 
the stoutest hearts. 

Yet is there a man of us all who— measuring his own share 
of what he saw, of what he felt, of what he did, of what he knew 
and what he was, as a part of all this picture of war and its desola- 
tion at the front and upon the fields of batde— will say that all this that 
we endured was comparable unto that unutterable woe of heart and life 
that was the daily and hourly experience during all those weary years 
ol uncertainty, of fear, of care and of anxious waiting in the silent and 
desolate home, out from which had gone the son, the husband, the 
brother, the father, whom the agonized mothers, wives, sisters and 
daughters mourned for, prayed for and hoped for, with a love stronger 
than death, during all those sorrowful days of suffering, wherein 
their hands might not relax from the toil and the duty of keeping 
the home and providing for the litde ones left to their protection 
and nurture ? For them there was no element of exciting activity 
to relieve or dispel the sense of pain and the heart-gnawing, amid 
doubts and fears, that could only be made less wearing by the 
certainty that brought the knowledge of death ; that told of the rest 
and peace in the distant grave ; of toil and pain and suffering ended. 
Surely those who thus endured were the real heroes of the war ! 
All honor to them for the blessing of their tears and their prayers 
that followed and watched over us, and for their ministrations sent 
forth into the field, where the tender, loving care of their mitigatmg 
hands came, bringing ease to pain and balm to the heart and 
staunching to the flow of waning life with a devotion that has caused 
the fame of our corps of nurses to keep pace with the valor of our 
bravest in the field. The names of Miss Dix and Clara Barton are 
world renowned, and we have yet with us here to-day our own 
honored Mother St. John. 

The cheer of woman's presence within the tent, beside the 
dying comrade in his last hours, has softened the bitterness of death 
through the comfort of the soothing hand that, when all was over, 
should write the last sad message of love that was to bear the tidings 
to distant ones, of the love and faith that whispered a cherished name 
m the last moments of life with an interest that ensures the meeting 
beyond the gates with the absent, unforgotten ones. 

Such was the worth and such the work of woman in that crisis 



48 

of our history as a Nation, that has made it the pivotal period of our 
existence as a fully tested and well-established government among 
the nations of the earth. 

Shall we not therefore do ourselves the justice of showing a 
most full and perfect recognition of woman, not as a mere cipher, 
filling out the initial importance of an integer, by one, more or less, 
o (cipher) at the left hand of the statement, but placed in the right 
and at the even level of her worth wherever she may indicate her 
ability to impress a characteristic ? 

Shall we venture to limit her in the exercise of her gifts and her 
talents in these days of progress, or in this presence, where we have 
come together to recall the incidents and the interests of our eventful 
service during the war ? 

Is there one of us who can remain unconscious of the moisture 
of an uprising tear that dims the eye when he remembers, amid the 
scenes of the past which this occasion recalls, the parting sorrows 
and the tears which could no longer be restrained when the last 
embrace and the farewell kiss had passed between the loved ones of 
every kin, never so dear as at the parting ? 

Nor shall we ever cease to remember the joyous welcome these 
devoted ones gave to those of us who returned to receive the bless- 
ing of their rejoicing and thanksgiving. 

But I pause now before the sad contrast of the sacred sorrow 
of those, borne down by the weight of their untold grief, whose 
loved ones returned not to receive their welcome, and whose tears 
of mourning now, as then, will receive an added impulse from these 
renewed memories. Unto these our tenderest sympathies go forth, 
and they will know that, though others may forget them and their 
sorrows, the comrades of their beloved dead will never grow indif- 
ferent to the memory of those who fell in our holy cause. 

God bless them, and keep us true to them and to a worthy 
appreciation of woman not only in sentiment but in verity, as 
" God's best" and holiest gift to life and love. 

THIRD REGULAR TOAST. 

" ' Brandywine.' ' Paoli,' and ' Valley Forge.' Reminders of 
heroic deeds and patriotic suffering." 

" Old Continentals in their ragged uniforms never faltered." 

Assigned to Captain William Wayne, Co. K, who responded 
as follows : 

It is not now, Mr. President, necessary to recount the story of 



49 

the American Revolution, but only so much of it as bears upon the 
sentmient just proposed. ^ 

The grouping of Brandywine, Paoli and Valley Forge seems 

rTlaZs" The ""T^^'^T °' '""^ ^^-^-P^ical and tentorial 
relations. They all he withm our county limits ; but this grouping 
also bnngs before us a very interesting feature in our history, in tha^ 
in their association they present to us one of the gloomiest periods 

^h ■:r:s£ ''' '-'''-' '''''^-'-- -' '- '-'' -^■^-'- -^i 

the B^hisr!" """T^" ''"' ''''' ^'^ occupancy of New York by 
the Biitish roops, there yet remained one grand purpose of General 
Howe unachieved-the capture of the city of Philadelphia-which 
when accomplished, it was hoped, along with the annihilation of 
U:e,r main army, would break down the rebellious opposition to Hi 
Majesty in the middle Colonies. To this end the enemy overran 
Nw Jersey irom the latter part of '76 to the middle of June, -77 
ba ling and skirmishing with alternating success and fa lure but 
without succeeding in forcing Washington into a batde upon iheir 
owiyerms. Failing in this, they betook themselves again' to New 

time fo th greatly embarrassed General Washington. It was 
reported that the Howes, with a considerable force, had sailed- 
destination the capes of Delaware. Washington collected his 
LTLrdecXr '-' ''^^^'^^^--'-^y^o learn that again he 

at Z'V.T''f^^V""'^f '"'" ^'" C'-'-P-^e.-cl disembarked 
at tie head of Elk. and at Chadds Ford, on the Brandywine, 
Washington presented himself to oppose their further march to 
Philadelphia A battle ensued. Defeat of the American troops 
was the result, and they retired demoralized and despondent 

We now come to Paoli. All that Washington now felt capable 
of domg was the harassing of the enemy's troops on their march to 
tne city. The prevention of its occupation bv them had been 
virtually given up as hopeless. 

In the latter part of September a large detachment of the 
enemy lay along the south valley range of hills in the neighborhood 
of the present Howelville and New CentreviUe, and about three 
miles from Paoli. A force was detailed by Washington to take 
position near and hang upon their rear, with the view of cutting off 
their baggage and otherwise impeding their march. Every pre- 



(4) 



50 

caution was taken by the American officer in command for the 
security of his camp, and its location was beheved to be unknown 
to the enemy. On the night of the 20th of September, piloted by 
an enemy to the patriot cause, General Grey reached the camp, and 
committed what has ever been recognized as one of the most 
barbarous butcherings of modern times. 

This affair is called in many of our histories the " Surprise at 
Paoli," but investigation of the subject at the time showed that, so 
far from being a surprise, the American troops were on the alert and 
in position when the white savages came on the ground, and that 
this most inhuman and unjustifiable massacre was due to disobedience, 
neglect or misapprehension of orders on the part of a subordinate 
officer. 

After much marching and countermarching, General Howe took 
possession of Philadelphia September 26th. 

In October following one serious attempt was made to redeem 
the city, and at Germantown fortune again failed to smile on the 
American arms. An accident alone saved His Majesty's army from 
a signal defeat. 

On December 17th the American army took up its position at 
Valley Forge and went into camp. Into the details of life there (if 
life it can be called) I will not enter ; they are familiar to you all. 
It was a campaign not against flesh and blood, against cannon and 
cutlass, but more terrible than these — against cold, hunger, naked- 
ness and disease. 

The language of exaggeration fails to describe the terrible 
realities of life in the camp of the Patriot Army in '77 and '78. 

The poet, the painter, the historian have come short in depicting 
the sufferings and the trials of the 

" Old Continentals in their ragged regimentals " 
•during the long and dark and dreary winter at Valley Forge. 

FOURTH REGULAR TOAST. 

" The Union of the States, the glory of the past and the hope 

of our future." 

" Our country's welfare our first concern." 

To Colonel John Wainwright. 

Mr. Chairman : It seems like presumption for me to attempt 
a response to such a toast on an occasion like this. " Our country's 
welfare our first concern " is well attested by the armless, legless and 
shattered remnants of brave and gallant veterans who are about us 



51 

here to-day. Our first concern for our country's welfare was well 
attested when in our youth, three and twenty years ago, we first 
trod the sod of this enclosure to the tap of drum and the " left ! 
left ! left ! " of our squad commanders in our preparations for what 
proved a long four years of bitter struggle and strife, of hardship, 
privations, disease and death. 

Our first concern for our country's welfare was well attested, 
Mr. Chairman, when, on a beautiful sunlight morning in November 
nearly a quarter of a century ago, a train of cars with these veterans 
drew out from yonder station for the seat of war, leaving behind us 
weeping and broken-hearted mothers, wives, sisters and daughters, 
who gave the brightest gems of their families a sacrifice for their 
country's welfare. 

Our first concern for our country's welfare was magnificently 
attested before Secessionville ; before Wagner, Gregg and Sumter, 
Green Plains, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Fort Fisher and a score of 
other conflicts with treason and rebellion. It was well attested, sir, 
by faithful services in the Army of the South, the Army of the 
James, the Army of the Potomac, and with Sherman in the Army 
of the Ohio. 

The three hundred and five dead of the gallant old Regiment, 
well attests our first concern for our country's welfare, scattered in 
every State from Massachusetts to Florida. One at least sleeps in 
the billowy Atlantic. Who of these survivors does not remember 
the solemn occasion of his funeral on shipboard ? Some sleep in 
ever-green graves of Florida ; some in Georgia chaperell ; some in 
Carolina's sands, on Virginia's bloody battlefields, in Southern 
prison grounds and in Northern hospital cemeteries ; some came 
home to die, nursed by loving hearts and tender hands ; some sleep 
on yonder hillside, almost within the sound of my voice, whose 
graves you so fondly decorate on the annual return of each 
Memorial Day. 

" Our first concern for our country's welfare " is well attested, 
sir, by the four hundred and fifty-eight wounded and crippled of the 
Ninety-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteers, who are scattered all over 
this land as living but shattered monuments of their fidelity to their 
country and first concern for its welfare. 

Mr. Chairman, "our first concern for our country's welfare" is 
well attested by these survivors, who, after having borne the heat of 
battle and breasted scores of storms of leaden hail, and after a 
separation of twenty years, have come here to-day to the very spot 



52 

where we had our first instruction tor our countr\-'s defence in the 
duties of the soldier, to renew and reassert our " concern for our 
countr}-'s welfare;" to greet our comrades of yore with hearty- 
hand-shake and fond embrace, and to bid them God-speed for the 
future. 

As I look into these dear old faces, after tv\ent\' years of sepa- 
ration, they grow more and more familiar, and the full, round, boyish 
faces of twent)' years ago come back to me, and the inter\al seems 
but yesterday. God grant, Mr. Chairman and dear old comrades, 
that this Reunion of the survivors of the gallant old Ninety -seventh 
Pennsylvania Regiment may be annually repeated until the grave 
of the last sur\'ivor shall be decked with the sweetest tiowers of 
spring. 

FIFTH REGULAR TOAST. 

" The touch of the elbow; the scenes and memories of twenty 

years ago." 

" Should auld acquaintance be forgot 
And never brought to mind ? " 

This toast was assigned to Dr. Theo. Worrall of Co. B. who 
responded most eloquently as follows : 

Mr. President and Comrades : My position here is a lonely one. 
being the only pri\ ate soldier who has been called upon to-day ; 
but I feel encouraged when I look into the faces of my comrades, 
and feel that mv remarks, coming from the heart and not the head, 
will be received with the kindliest feeling. [Applause.] 

Only a short time since I was notitied that the toast and senti- 
ment just announced was assigned to me, and that I would be 
expected to respond. My first impulse was to refuse ; being sur- 
rounded by the weighty cares of a busy professional life, I felt it 
impossible to give the subject proper thought and attention. But 
when I sat down to write a reply, how vividly the scenes and 
memories of twenty years ago passed before me ! In file, in section, 
in platoon, in columns of companies they passed in panoramic 
review, and I felt that I must come here, and in my feeble way help 
to erect a temple in our hearts to the stirring scenes of auld lang 
syne. [Applause.] And why should we not do this ? Are not 
those memories burned in living letters on our mind ? And are 
they not worthy of commem<^ration ? For twenty-three centuries 
the human familv has paid tribute to great men and great deeds. 
A beauriful marble edifice, called the Hall of Heroes, in which 
repose the efiigies of the great men of all Germany, stands on the 



53 

Danube, that historic river whose shores have Hstened to the hymns 
of the Crusaders, resounded with the tread of Roman Legions, and 
trembled under the thunder of Napoleon's artillery. William Tell's 
memory is perpetuated by a chapel on the shores of the placid Lake 
Lucerne. A statue of Andrew Hofer wins thither the weary feet of 
the peasant of the Tyrol to the dark aisles of the Cathedral at 
Innspruck. In our Nation's Capital stands a magnificent monument, 
whose capstone pierces the ethereal blue of the heavens, erected to 
the memory of the man after whom the city is named. [Applause.] 
Then, I ask, why should not we erect in our hearts a rich, rare 
monument to the memories of days passed forever ? I ask you to 
give me the touch of the elbow as of yore. Let the subtle cords of 
memory carry you back over the years since the nation's fate hung 
in the balance, and bring to mind scenes and memories of twenty 
years ago. Time has written great chapters in the history of nations 
since then. The elastic step is gone with which you sprang into 
line when the electric current flashed through the North the question 
pure and simple. Shall this country be preserved ? [Applause] 
The great artist Time has penciled silver threads in your locks since 
the day you fought for national unity. Yet how vivid the memories ! 
It seems but yesterday that the dear old Ninety-seventh Regiment 
stood on this ground an undisciplined and awkward body of men, 
but with hearts aglow with patriotic enthusiasm. But yesterday 
that Pennsylvania's great-hearted War Governor [Applause] — than 
whom a better never lived — presented us with the flag — that fliag the 
emblem of our nationality, and for which we suffered so many 
dangers and hardships. Our first dress parade, and the day Colonel 
Duer kept us one hour at a shoulder arms, while the Adjutant read 
orders. [Laughter and applause.] Ah, the poor Adjutant ! Sacred 
be his memory ! [Emotional applause.] Methinks I hear the 
awkward challenge of the equally awkward sentinel, and the many 
schemes we resorted to when we wanted to break the guard and get 
into West Chester. And (turning to Colonel Guss), Colonel, what 
brilliant flank movements we would make down an alley when we 
would spy you coming down the street. [Great applause.] These 
are all memories of twenty years ago. Time has not dimmed the 
recollection of our departure to the seat of war. The leave-takings, 
the fond embraces, the tears, the benedictions, how vividly these 
scenes arise ! In fancy I yet see the mother — that dear old loyal 
mother. With a heart bursting as she contemplated the uncertainties 
of the future ; with hands raised toward heaven ; with cheeks wet 



54 

with tears of maternal love, she asked God to protect her boy. 
This is no fancy sketch. If you think so, go with me to the fireside 
where sits that mother, whose form is bent with age, whose locks 
are silvered with the snows of many winters, and ask her if there 
was not a stern reality in the parting of twenty odd years ago. 

Then, again, I ask you to follow me along the line of march 
from West Philadelphia to the Cooper Shop Refreshment Saloon. 
Ah, boys, I think you can remember those knapsacks we carried, 
loaded so full of the winecessaries of a soldier's life that they would 
break down any mule General Grant had in Virginia. [Applause.] 
Then that passage through the flagless, treason-tainted streets of 
Baltimore ; the pitching of tents for the first time, under the shadows 
of the Nation's Capital ; the exchange of arms at the arsensal ; then 
back to Baltimore, and, oh, heavens ! that voyage from there to the 
sun-bathed shores of South Carolina. Will you ever forget it ? 
Why, the very thought of it makes a fellow feel as if he had taken 
a dose of tartar emetic. [Great applause.] How we threw up 
everything except the Government shoes we had on our feet. 
[Applause and laughter.] How we remember the campaigns in the 
heart of the South — Port Royal, Fernandina, Jacksonville. How 
clearly we see all this ! The enemy for the first time ! How every 
nerve thrilled as with electric fire when you looked down the 
gleaming rifle barrels into their faces, and how confidently you felt 
the touch of the elbow of comrades tried and true on right and left. 
Then the first dead comrade ! Has this scene been forgotten ? I 
see him yet. The gallant Henry Dunn, Co. B, died doing his duty 
at Grimball's Plantation, June loth, 1862. I think he was the first 
man killed in the Regiment. Then comes Morris Island, the siege 
of Sumter — that spot made memorable, yes, and damnable, by 
Americans who, forgetting the traditions of the past, that love of 
country born in the womb of a British despot's tyranny, baptized in 
the blood of their patriotic sires in lyjS, fired with malicious dis- 
loyalty on the American flag. [Applause.] It was there where, 
asleep or awake, we were continually under a storm of bursting 
iron. No foot of that island withdrawn from the enemy's sight — no 
foot but what could be played upon with rebel shot and shell as a 
piano's keys under Thalberg's stormy fingers. 

Comrades, would you want to forget those scenes and memories 
of twenty years ago ? No ! Let us hold them sacred. Methinks, 
did I want to, I would ask the gods to let me die. [Applause.] 
Follow me to Virginia, where battles, sieges and bivouacs followed 



55 

in one ceaseless round. Richmond, Petersburg, P^ort Fisher, how 
clearly we see it all ! This day dead comrades ; that day bearing 
off a bloody field the form of a beloved Major, stricken with many 
wounds. [Applause.] These memories are not the '\^\& phantas- 
magoria of an over-excited brain, but living memories of stirring 
scenes of twenty years ago, and reason must have forsaken its throne 
in the man who has forgotten them. [Applause.] Like the noon- 
day sun breaking through the storm-cloud, bathing the earth in a 
bright sheen of glory, these memories come o'er me, and, bright 
though they be, my heart is saddened by others. On the slopes 
of the sunny Southland ; by the rippling waves of the winding 
James ; on North Carolina's billow-beaten coast, rest those whose 
triumphs, defeats and trials have ended. Then let us pause in the 
midst of the festive scenes of to-day, and while the autumnal winds, 
soughing through the dying verdure of the forest, sings a sad 
requiem over their graves, consecrate one memory, one thought, 
to our dead comrades — the absent ones with whom we touched 
elbows twenty years ago ! [Applause.] Their death carried grief 
and sorrow into many households. Hearts, stricken and desolate, 
bowed at the fireside, and 'tis useless to try to swing the burden 
clear of any heart by throwing into the scale on the other hand the 
vast amount of captured cannon, or the number of prisoners taken> 
It will not lighten the load one ounce. [Applause.] But this 
thought may: their death helped to establish on a firm basis and 
forev^er, that government without a model ; that government without 
a prototype, and to place that flag (here a piece of the old regimental 
flag, shot away at the battle of Green Plains, Va., was shown), the 
fairest blossom in all the flowery world, to blooming in its native 
soil once more. [Great applause.] 

Now, comrades, I implore you to keep alive these memories 
and scenes of twenty years ago. Do not forget that you once 
composed a part of that army which gained an individuality attained 
by none other of which history tells. [Applause.] Hurled time 
after time by incompetent general oflicers against impregnable 
works, beaten back in a shapeless mass, yet ever ready to place its 
bleeding bosom between danger and its country, and beat back the 
billows of rebellion, in spray tinged with its life blood, to the lair 
from which they came. [Applause.] Napoleon once said, in a burst 
of haughty eloquence, " In all the great armies of Europe the com- 
mander was everything." "It was not," said he, "the Roman army 
that conquered Gaul, but Caesar ; it was not the Carthagenian army 

LofC. 



56 

that made Rome tremble at her g-ates, but Hannibal ; it was not the 
Macedonian army that marched to the Indies, but Alexander ; it 
was not the Prussian army that beat back from her borders three of 
the most powerful armies of Europe, but Frederick " This proud 
apotheosis has no application to the Army of the Union. In it no 
central figure arose to become the cynosure of all eyes. 'Tis true 
the names of Grant, Sherman, Meade, Sheridan and Pennsylvania's 
gallant sons, Hancock and Reynolds, stand prominently [great 
applause] the peer of any of the great military chieftains of Europe, 
yet they are but the perspective of the picture, the bold outlines of 
which is that gallant army that dared to do and die for God's own 
country. [Applause.] 

Now, let me say in conclusion, let us keep up this touch of the 
elbow ; let us once in every twelve months meet here and recall the 
scenes and memories of twenty years ago ; and may the anniversary 
of this day be a bright flower, pure as the calla, to place in our 
garland of years. [Applause.] 

SIXTH REGULAR TOAST. 

" The men of the 97th Pennsylvania Volunteers, who died that 
the Republic might live. The mystic chords of memory that stretch 
from every battle-field." 

" O'er fame's eternal camping ground 

Their silent tents are spread. 
And Glory guards, with solemn round, 

The bivouac of the dead." 

Assigned to Captain Geo. A. Lemaistre, who responded as 
follows : 

Mr. President and Comrades : At this time I cannot prevent 
memory taking me back twenty-three years, when with hearts full 
of patriotic fire, we first greeted each other on this ground. But I 
look in vain for the faces of many noble ones who were then with us. 
The handshakings of to-day but recall more vividly to each of us 
the absent ones. 

The joy of our meeting is mingled with melancholy thoughts 
of those who gave their lives that this country might live. Their 
patriotism, fidelity and courage can never fail to be cherished. The 
brave and faithful Durnell, the modest and patriotic Watkins, the 
unflinching courage of our beloved Carruthers and the daring and 
impetuous Hawkins will ever be green in our memory. 

Our death roll is long and illustrious. In almost every southern 



57 

state our heroic comrades have fallen. Their names will be cherished 
not only by us, but by their posterity until the end of time. 

All honor to the glorious dead whose devotion to their country 
has taught a lesson too solemn to be forgotten. Their names with 
their deeds will ever be held in reverence by a grateful people. 



The responses to the toasts were all very eloquently delivered 
and each of those responding was liberally applauded. Comrade 
Worrall's response to " The touch of the elbow," although entirely 
impromptu, was decidedly appropriate and in it he recalled many 
pleasant reminiscences of the days when the comrades' elbows 
touched while in line for the preservation of The Union. 

After the conclusion of the regular toasts many of the comrades 
were gathered about the stand occupied by the music and sang, ac- 
companied by the orchestra, many of the stirring and patriotic songs 
of the war, which seemed to intensify the feeling of comradeship and 
unforgetfulness of the old times when they sang together around the 
camp-fire to cheer the loneliness of those days of toil and service. 
And then came the closing scene at the banquetting hall, and really 
the last feature on the programme — a song by comrade Ray of Phil- 
adelphia. This over, the meeting terminated in many cheers for 
comrades and officers that made the hall resound with echoes, such 
as never were heard in " Old Camp Wayne " since the boys left it in 
1861. 

The carrying out of the programme was so successful that it 
exceeded the expectations of the most sanguine, and much credit is 
due the following executive committee having the matter in charge : 

L. R. Thomas, Samuel Hawley, John A. Grofif, David Jones, 
D. W. C. Lewis, S. A. March, Oliver Channell, I. A. Cleaver, Cap- 
tain Underwood and others. 

At 4 P. M. the drum and fife were again heard sounding the re- 
call. Colonel Price again called upon the comrades in the old-time 
way — " Fall in, boys," when the march was resumed up Church to 
Market, to High, to Gay. When at the old landmark the line was 
halted, and faced to the front, Colonel Price spoke these part- 
ing words : "Comrades, we are about to separate, but only for ano- 
ther year, when we will all meet again, I hope, our ranks undimin- 
ished I trust, and our locks not much the whiter in the interval. I 



58 

feel that I shall voice the sentiment of every one of us here when I 
say we have had a most grand and enjoyable time, and that our Re- 
union has been a most magnificent and gratifying success. Good- 
bye, comrades, God bless you all ; but before we disperse there is one 
name that we have heard spoken to-day, more than once, in terms 
of honor and love, whose absence we have felt and regretted ; one now 
far away at Hot Springs, Ark., where he has gone to seek healing 
for his wounds — Brevet-Major General G. Pennypacker, U. S. Army. 
I ask you to give three cheers for him." These were given with a 
will. Three cheers were then given to our old Fife-major, C. Fah- 
nestock, our host of the Green Tree Hotel. Three cheers were given 
for Mother St. John ; three cheers for all the survivors and three for 
Col. Price. Then once more the boys disbanded and returned to 
their homes. 




The Roster. 



FIELD AND STAFF. 

Colonel Henry R. Guss, West Chester. 
Lieutenant-Colonel A. P. Duer, Atglen. 
Colonel John Wainwright, Wilmington, Del. 
Brevet-Colonel Isaiah Price, Philadelphia. 
Adjutant Ehvood P. Baldwin, West Chester. 
Quartermaster David Jones, West Chester. 
Quartermaster John H. Brower, Vincent. 
Chaplain D. W. Moore, Kennett Square. 
Sergeant-Major Samuel W. Hawley, Media. 
Fife-Major Casper C. Fahnestock, West Chester. 

BAND. 

Bernard Roecker, West Chester. 
Thomas H. Windle, Coatesville. 
Wm. H. H. Taylor, Chester, Del. Co. 
William Dalling, West Chester. 
John L. Hosmer, Newtown Square. 

COMP.\NY A. 

Captain Francis M.'Guss, West Chester. 
First Lieutenant William Peace, Coatesville. 
First Lieutenant Abel Griffith, West Chester. 
First Lieutenant Harry T. Gray, Philadelphia. 
Sergeant Jeptha Clark, Coatesville. 
Corporal Reese Elmer Welch, Cedar Knoll. 
Corporal Madison Lovett, Oxford. 
Musician Edward R. Eisenbeis, Philadelphia. 
Teamster Isaac P. Chandler, Ercildoun. 
Private Alexander M. Chandler, Chester Valley. 

" James Y. Clark, Coatesville. 

" Isaac M. Pawling, " 

" Robert H. Humpton, Coatesville. 

" Joseph P. Robinson, Curwensville. 

" Lafayette Thompson, London Grove. 

" George W. Hawkins, Wilmington, Del. 

" Joseph G. Brower, " " 

" George W. Cass, Sugartown. 
John A. Groff, West Chester. 
William H. H. Starts, West Chester. 

" John W. Dowlin, Coatesville. 

" William Mercer, Talcose. 

" Dr. Joseph E. Valentine, Philadelphia. 

(59) 



6o 

Private Ephraim L. Ross, Philadelphia. 
" George P. Matthews, " 
" Ezra G. Goodwin, Frazer. 
David M. Taylor, Oxford. 
" Jeremiah King, " 

" Isaac W. Gray, Glen Olden, Del. Co. 
" Joseph Winkler, Manayunk. 
" Richard E. Pharaoh, Phoenixville. 

COMPANY B. 

Captain Dallas Crow, Philadelphia. 
Second Lieutenant John B. Griffith, Modena. 
ist. Sergeant Webster A. Nichols, Unionsville. 
Sergeant Nelson P. Boyer, Coatesville. 

" Harvey Highet, Fairmount, Lancaster Co. 
" James M. Jackson Cowan, Oxford. 
" Gerhart Reeder, West Chester. 
Corporal Robert Bruce Wallace, Philadelphia. 
Private Amor N. Chalfant, Christiana, Lancaster Co. 
" Samuel J. Day, Coatesville. 
" George Doubts, " 
" Joseph Emerson, Cochranville. 
" Edmund Esrey, Philadelphia. 
" Wesley Vance, " 

" Jacob D. Lemley, " 
" Albert Harkins, Compassville. 

Dr. Theodore A. Worrall, North East, Md. 
" George G. Supplee, Honeybrook. 

COMPANY c. 

Captain Leonard R. Thomas, West Chester. 
First Lieut. Emmor G. Griffith, " 

" " George W. Abel, Concordville. 

" " Charles Warren, Valley Forge. 

Sergeant Isaac A. Cleaver, Berwyn. 

B. Lundy Kent, (Capt. 13th Heavy Art'y, U. S. 
C. T.,) Wilmington, Del. 
" Stephen H. Eachus, West Chester. 
" Cyrus M. D^vis, Wagontown. 
Corporal Davis O. Taylor, West Chester. 
" Levis T. Beidler, Cambria Station. 
" C. Burleigh Hambleton, Elk View. 
" Maris Pierce, Sioux City, Iowa. 
" John R. Miller, Downingtown. 
Jesse D. Farra, West Chester. 
Private Oliver B. Channel, " 

" Samuel Woodward, '' 

" Emmor B. Hickman, " 
" Samuel A. March, " 



6i 



Private J. Jones Still, Malvern. 

" James J. Dewees, New Centreville. 
" Eugene Vickers, Philadelphia. 
" Edward Mendenhall, " 
" Ambrose Quay, Birchrunville. 

Elwood Griffith, Rock Island, 111. 
" William H. Speakman, W. Whiteland. 
" Robert A. Wilson, Cochranville. 
" William Whistler, Warren Tavern. 
" William D. Thomas, Downingtown. 

COMPANY D. 

Captain Isaac B. Taylor, Columbia. 

Second Lieutenant John W. Brooks, Coatesville. 

Sergeant Samuel McBride, Frankford, Philadelphia. 

" John E. Davis, Philadelphia. 
Corporal Robert Fairlamb, Elwyn, Del. Co. 
" John Goodwin, Wilmington, Del. 
" John Jordan, Wilmington, Del. 
" John W. Carter, Elam, Del. Co. 
Teamster Francis W. Starkey, Aston Mills, Del. Co. 
Private W. W. Bullock, Wilmington, Del. 

" Francis M. Frame, Parkesburg. 

" John Dowlin, Thurlow, Del. Co. 

" James Hamilton, Nether Providence. 

" John E. Huey, Parkerville. 

" Edward Maxwell, Greenville, Del. Co. 
Francis H. Pyle, Glen Mills, Del. Co. 

'' Walter Pyle, Cheyney, Del. Co. 

" George W. Eavenson, Thornton, Del. Co. 

" Abram Fawkes, Malvern. 

" John Pass, Chaddsford. 

" Samuel J. Cloud, West Chester. 

" William W. Mcintosh, Downingtown. 

" James Beaumont, Glen Riddle, Del. Co. 

" Williani Beaumont, Chester, Delaware Co. 

" Richard S. Howarth, Media, " 

COMPANY E. 

Second Lieut John Sullivan, West Chester. 
Sergeant George L. Smith, " 

" James A. Riley, Coatesville. 
Corporal George Jenkins, West Chester. 
Musician Charles Riley, " 

Private Robert Sherman, Glen Hall. 

" Francis Hilderbrant, Danville, Pa. 

" Galium [Colom] Duffy, Wilmington, Del. 

" Thomas Dallas, Parkesburg. 



62 



COMPANY F. 

Brevet-Lieut. Colonel D. W. C. Lewis, West Chester. 
Captain Lewis P. Malin, St. Davids, Pa. 
First Lieut. Isaac J. Nichols, Port Kennedy, Pa. 
Second Lieut. Thomas Cosgriff, West Chester. 
" " John E. Huntsman, Sugartown. 

First Sergeant Thomas E. Brown, Wilmington, Del. 
Sergeant Samuel Wynn, Nantmeal Village. 

" Herman P. Brower, West Whiteland. 
Corporal Edward Townsend, Philadelphia. 

•' Joseph R. Richardson, Saddsburyville. 
" Jesse M. Boyles, West Chester. 
" Henry C. Reagan, " 

Private Evan Pharaoh, " 

Hugh Hale, 
" William T. Meeteer, Modena. 
" John W. Keeley, Spring City. 
" William E. Stiteler, Columbia. 
" Abraham Thomas, Henry Clay, Del. 
" Edward Shewey, Lickdale, Pa. 

COMPANY G. 

Captain Caleb Hoopes, Media. 

" Washington W. James, Darby, Del. Co. 
First Lieut. Gasway O. Yarnall, Chester, Del. Co. 
Second Lieut. WilHam H. Eves, " " 

First Sergeant Franklin P. Clapp, Media. 
Sergeant Ciiarles E. Ottey, " 

" Thomas J. Wade, Oxford. 
" Thomas S. Dicker, Abrams, Montgomery Co. 
Corporal Ezekiel T. Richie, Philadelphia. 
" Hillary Fox, West Chester. 
" Eli Dunlap, Landenberg, Del. 
" John S. Culbert, Chester, Del. 
Private Crosley B. Wilson, Media. 
" William Popjoy, " 

" Alexander Miller, Crum Lynn, Delaware Co. 
" George White, Marple, Delaware Co. 
" Philip Rothwein, Roxborough, Philadelphia. 

COMPANY H. 

Captain George A. LeMaistre, Wilmington, Del. 

" Theodore M. Smedley, " " 

Sergeant Robert J. Baldwin, Pottstown, Montgomery Co. 

" Robert Walker, Downingtown. 
Corporal Thomas W. Durnall, Collamer. 

" William F. Smith, Conshohocken. 
Teamster Marshall B. England, West Chester. 

" Levi F. Snyder, Glen Moore. 



63 

Private Alfred C. Allison, Downingtown. 

Isaac B. Davis, Hopewell Cotton Works 
John A. D. McKeever, Wilmington Del 
Ezra H. Sullivan, " ' u 

William M. Steele, Philadelphia. 
Payne A. Goold, West Chester. 

COMPANY I. 

Captain George W. Duffee. Moores Station, Delaware Co 
Second Lieut. George M. Middleton, Philadelphia 
Sergeant William R. Wood, Dupont, Del. 

Jacob Cline, Chester, Del. Co 
Corporal Charles Stewart, Moores Station, Del Co 
Private Thomas Edwards, Oakdale, Delaware Co ' 
Henry P. Lindsay, Chester Valley 
James Groff, Clifton Heights, Delaware Co 
James Maloney, Philadelphia. 
David T. Nuttle, Chester, Delaware Co 
Richard Walraven, Ridley, Delaware Co. 
Isaac D. Haines, Philadelphia. 

COMPANY K. 

Captain William Wayne, Paoli. 

" William S. Underwood, West Chester 
First Lieut. William M. Sullivan, Warren Tavern 
Second Lieut. Marriott Brosius, Lancaster Pa 
Sergeant R. Powell, Fithian, West Chester Pa 
Corporal Barnett R. Rapp, " ' u 

" Isaac Miller, Collamer, Lancaster Co 
Wilham E. Davis, Spread Eagle 
Musician John H. Kauffman, Berwyn 
Private John S. Famous, Chester Valley. 
Isaac Harrison, St. Davids, Pa. 
Henry B. Thomas, Norristown, Pa. 
Sebastian Keeley, Birchrunville. 
Daniel Urmy, West Chester. 

of t.5Jlecfe?^y!'!4T"s'.Sroth:rs\TL°ui:;\ --^-^'^^^^^^ ^^^^e office 
were in attendance are omkted it is owwl^f ascertained. If any who 
the notice to register the r names JYf ^ ^V^]""'' T^ ^^^"".^ attended to 
know who were present] otherwise impossible to 



A . ^^'"^ST Chestke, Nov., 6th, 1884 

A meeting of the executive committee of the Society of the 

Ntt^e y.eve,nhPen„.^va„iaVohm.eers,washddattheoffic'o ol 
A. Groff, at 2 o clock, P.M., this date, the chai„«a„, S. W. Hawlev 
pres,dmg P„sent : W„,. S. Underwood. Herman P. Brower' 
Robert Fatrlamb, L. R. Thomas and Samuel A. March of the 



64 

committee; Colonel H. R. Guss, D. W. C. Lewis, I. A. Cleaver and 
others also present. 

The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved. 
The following bills of expenses incurred by the committee, were 
presented for payment : 

Dr. Cr. 

Rent of Fair Grounds . . . . . $ lo.oo 
Harry Mills for services at Fair Grounds . 5.00 

D. W. C. Lewis, work preparing tables, stands, 

etc. at Grounds 21.06 

J. B. Smith, furnishing chairs . . . 30.00 

W. A. Rollins, decorations in Hall . . . 26.50 
Edward Strong, carriage hire for Orator and 

Mrs. St. John 6.00 

T. L. Hawkins, Caterer, as per contract . 330.00 

T. T. Smith, for cigars ^S-oo 

Charles Jolly, for beer 10.00 

H. C. Wood, for music ..... 27.00 

C. C. Fahnestock, entertaining Mrs. St. John 
and daughter ....... 3.50 

By cash in Treasury from former collections 184.50 

" received from subscriptions at meeting 256.00 

" contributed by Colonel H. R. Guss 7.26 

" " " Lieutenant W. H. Eves 7.26 

" " " Sergeant Robert Fairlamb 7.26 

" " " " L A. Cleaver 7.26 

" " " Sergeant-major S.VV. Hawley 7.26 

" " " Captain Wm. Wayne 7.26 

I484.06 I484.06 

On motion the above bills, which constitute the entire amount 
of the cost of the Reunion, were ordered to be paid. The six 
comrades above named contributing equally to make up a deficiency 
in the amount collected of $43.56, so as to close the account and 
settle all bills. 

There being a number of subscriptions yet outstanding, the 
Secretary was directed to collect the same and pay to the Treasurer 
of the Society. The committee then adjourned its session, to meet 
at such time and place as the chairman shall direct. 

L. R. Thomas, Secretary. 



WiAn <^^ 



Mi- 



